Typhoon Fever

Slowly, but surely, the typhoon moves upon me. As I rode into Kito Saturday afternoon, there were occasional sprinkles as I dodged through the tunnels. It started raining there Saturday night and rained almost all day Sunday and Sunday night. The Uemoto's were giving me a ride into Takushima as Takuya had to come near here to get his driver's license renewed. We decided to make a break for it this morning (Monday) and as of right now (3:00 pm) the typhoon is bearing down on Takushima city. Previous encounters with typhoons here were of little comparison to this. Wind is blowing, and rain is falling quite profusely. I'm dreading the three block walk over to my hotel after I get done here.

Anyways, hopefully it blows through tonight. It's suppose to hit the jet stream and pick up speed and be gone by tomorrow. We'll see. If it is, I start my hike not far from here. Should be able to get through the first 8 or 9 temples pretty easily in one day. There are a lot grouped in the big cities, with large gaps in between. So after Thursday I'll be done with 20 or so (out of 88) but with a lot of hiking left.

But the couple days I spent in Kito were nice and relaxing. Ate a lot of Japanese food, some of it new, some of it I've had before. Fried octopus is better then the raw stuff. Had various other sushi and sashimi dishes, and Japanese prepared vegetables. A very good time, and they were very nice. They're even bringing me my bike after I get done, so that I don't have to catch the bus back to Kito.

As for garlic (to ward off mosquitoes) - I haven't seen any around. If you can tell me what it is in kanji, maybe I'll try to find the garlic pills. Other things I can't find in Japan: a loaf of bread, peanut butter (found something that looked like peanut butter, but it had a picture of a fish on it. Decided against trying it), and vending machines with chips in it (thousands with drinks, numerous ice cream vending machines, even a few with cup-o-noodles, and a couple sushi vending machines (one was out in the boonies that didn't look like it had been used in a few years), but none with chips, candy bars, and things like that. weird.).

well, must go brave the weather and get bunkered in for the night. I can hear the wind howling up the elevator shaft up here on the 6th floor.