local news

My list of weather experiences continues to grow...Typhoon Krovanh is making an appearance in Japan as I'm writing this! Not sure why, but in this area hurricanes are called typhoons. Fortunately, I put a few hurricanes/tropical storms under my belt in Florida so I know #1 not to panic, #2 to be prepared just in case, and #3 that this one doesn't seem to bad! It took some research though because the scales used to rate hurricanes are different than the scales used by the Japanese Meteorological Society. With a few calculations I learned the typhoon was comparable to a category 1 hurricane and now it's been downgraded to a tropical storm. The Japanese don't seem to get worked up about it like we do in the states, there wasn't even an announcement on the intercom system. (There are speakers set up throughout Japan for important announcements and I can hear it from inside my house - it was used a few weeks back for a flood warning). It just goes to show that media in the states really create unnecessary panic when it comes to weather!

The other big news in Japan is the national elections that were held yesterday. The Democratic Party of Japan won over 300 seats in the 480 seat Lower House. This means the Liberal Democratic Party will lose control for the first time in almost 50 years and a new Prime Minster will take control in September. I have to admit I'm not big on politics, but the change of power is a historic event and I'm curious to see how it will effect the country and the economy.