Typhoon alert!
A typhoon has been passing through our region of Japan for the last couple of days. Obeying the laws of Murphy, the last couple of days also happened to be my ‘holiday’ days for the month, so I enjoyed my days off by cowering underneath my kitchen table, curled up in the foetal position.
Japanese houses are poorly insulated. I’ll realise the full menace of this when winter comes and I have to keep warm by setting myself on fire every now and again. Even in just windy conditions, you can feel the draught leaking in through the gaps that intersperse the walls of your house. Japanese houses are not made with bricks - most are made from a wooden frame, with a sort of mortar/cardboard type material for the walls. Im quite sure that if you were so inclined, you could easily break into a Japanese home by say, kicking a wall, or sneezing close to one.
Exactly why they haven’t adopted the less insane method of building houses from bricks, is not entirely apparent. Id like to think there is a rational explanation for it, but I fear that there just isn’t - its just ‘The Japanese way’.
Driving during typhoon conditions is hilariously dangerous fun. Watching without qualm as houses and livestock fly through the air past your windscreen, you grip the steering wheel until your knuckles go black - fighting against the wind and rain who are both trying to make you career into the watery paddy fields of death on either side of a road that is in fact narrower than your actual car.
Tomorrow the new school term starts, and I will begin teaching. This may mean that I will actually have to start doing work. Bah.
yeah, Id like to think there is a rational explanation for it, but I fear that there just isn’t – its just ‘The Japanese way’. bye