Rain, Rain, Go Away. Come Again on Monday Morning!

This year the rainy season seems to be a little early.
Usually the rainy season lasts more-or-less for the month of June, but this year we've had a few extended patches of rain already. Actually, I'm almost confident to say that we've had just as many rainy days as sunny ones in this latter half of May. I wonder if that means that the rainy season is just going to be longer this year, or if perhaps it will end sooner, since it started sooner. Who knows.
Sure enough, it's raining right now. The frogs must be loving all this wet weather. However, today's rain (and yesterday's too, for that matter) can be explained by the following picture:
Yes, the second typhoon of this season is getting closer and causing all this rain. It was a pretty nasty typhoon when it was down by the Philippines, but it has lost quite a bit of strength as it climbed slowly northwards to Japan. I just saw on the news this morning that it caused some pretty strong winds and heavy rains in Okinawa as it passed by last night, and now the southern island of Kyushu is getting a bit of a pounding, but nothing too serious. The picture above shows it's predicted trajectory. Looks like it's going to pass by south of us, (if you aren't sure where we live, find the "0" of "30" and take your line of sight straight upwards to the Sea of Japan coast (the northern coast) and you'll see a small peninsula just to your right. We live at the base of that peninsula) but we'll probably still fall within the big yellow circle of strong winds and heavy rain. Fingers crossed, anyway! If we get what's known as a keiho (severe weather alert) then school is cancelled for the day (or at least until lunchtime, possibly for the whole day). We had a heavy rain keiho just a couple of weeks ago, and it was GREAT!! Of course, we still have to go in to work, only the students get the day off, but it means we get to chill out and catch up on things without having to "do our jobs" and go to teach classes etc. haha.
Anyway, I just checked the weather report and the southern half of Kyoto prefecture has a heavy rain keiho issued, so it's probably just a matter of time until they extend it up to here. We need to get 50mm of rain in one hour to get a keiho . The question is, will the keiho still be in place when it counts (Monday morning!) or will it be lifted by then and thus school as normal.
Keiho, or no keiho, that is the question.

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for us. We'd love to have a relaxing Monday :)

Golden "Week"

Spring has finally sprung in northern Kyoto! Too bad it came at the end of our long holiday. Golden "Week" if you will remember from past posts is one of Japan's longer holiday breaks. There are 3 public holidays in a row, and if they are combined with a weekend that's 5 whole days off of work! This year the Golden "Week" holidays fell on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. (This is why I am using the term "week" loosely...a week, in my book, is 7 days...I'll even go with 5 days for the work week.) There was also a public holiday on April the 29th, but Bryn and I both had school that day anyways.

[Side Bar: The Royal Wedding just happened to be on the 29th...did you watch it?!? I did, every last second of it! Loved it. Am very jealous of Dutchess Catherine.]


Anyways back on topic. Since we had to work on a holiday, we both had a day off to make up for it. Bryn's was this past Monday, mine was Friday. Typical! It did mean that we each had 6 full days of holiday, just not all at the same time.

The weather was decent over our T-W-TH holiday. Mostly sunny, but with a fairly cool wind. We decided we needed to do something interesting to warrant a good blog entry though, so we decided to take a bike ride to Amanohashidate on Wednesday morning. It was a pleasant ride for the most part, but very windy! Also, seeing as all of Japan was also on vacation, Amanohashidate was absolutely packed! We made it to one of the restaurants there just in time to get a good table and beat the crowds. After lunch, we had chi-on mochi - well that's what I call it...apparently Bryn tells me it's real name is chie no mochi. So, if you ever find yourself at Amanohashidate, DON'T order chi-on mochi or you will get odd looks. (By the way, it's mochi covered with red bean paste that you eat for knowledge...I think) Then we continued on across Amanohashidate, made a brief stop at the big temple which is actually a shrine...oops and headed home. (Four whole years and I still couldn't tell you the difference between a shrine and a temple...oh well!)

A farmer plowing their flooded field.

A freshly planted field. Notice how hazy it is out...that's the sand from China that blows over - no joke! It has cleared up now though.

Me eating my knowledge mochi.

Entrance to the shrine (NOT temple) at Amanohashidate.

It was a nice little outing, aside from the uncomfortable bike seats...and a good way to get out and see the freshly planted rice fields and the mountains which are quickly turning the happiest shade of bright green. Yep, I would dare say spring is here and I can finally say SAYONARA to winter!!!!

It's MAY!

koi carp flags ("koi-nobori") flying over a stream in our town celebrating Children's Day (May 5)

Wow, so time flies!! Liz and I have been married for one year already. It's hard to believe that that fantastic day in St Michaels was one year ago! Well, to mark the occasion, we splurged and stayed in a luxury hotel in central Osaka. Our room was on the 29th floor. The view was awesome. However, those of you who know me well enough to know my weirdnesses will know that I'm not a huge fan of heights, to put it mildly. I booked our room knowing that it would be high up, but I thought it would be nice to have a great view. It just took me a while to crawl up to the window and look down! haha

view from the room

Liz, cool as a cucumber standing by the window

Me, trying to convince my legs to join me a little closer to the window...

...and success!!

The hotel was very posh, and we had a great weekend of shopping, dining and chilling out (and a little bit of getting lost, too! haha). It was a good fun way to mark our anniversary, and we're looking forward to the many more to come.

going out for dinner

looking back up at the hotel