Landslides: A real danger in some parts of Okinawa

Landslides are one of Okinawa's dangers especially during typhoon season and the rainy seasons. Today during a trip to the northern part of Okinawa I found myself encountering a great deal of damage from recent landslides and I thought that it might be a good idea to give you the chance to take a look at what you should be looking out for during the seasons when there is heavy rain. There is not too much to say about the landslides themselves other than the fact that they are dangerous and you should be aware of your surroundings especially if you are traveling along mountain roads during the rainy seasons.





 

 


 



 



 



 

 

A look back: Typhoon Season 2012

This typhoon season has been an interesting one. There were a good number of typhoons compared to what we are used to and they were pretty intense including one which came from the west which is never really good.

I have taken some of the videos that I posted during the storms and put them here so that you can take a quick look back.

 

UPDATE: Typhoon Bolaven August 24

 

 

This morning upon checking weather reports for the first time it has become apparent that that the storm has progressed to a category three. We are still predicting that the storm will be a category four when it hits us here in the next 24 to 48 hours.

 

The current weather is beautiful here in Okinawa and again I cannot stress more that this is the time to get outside and prepare. I will shoot more information out on my facebook and blog over the next few days.

UPDATE: Typhoon Bolaven

 

Currently a category 2, Typhoon Bolaven continues to pick up speed as it heads towards Okinawa. In the past 12 hours the potential path of the storm has changed and is now predicted to come across the southern part of the main island of Okinawa. Forecast says that the typhoon will progress to a category 4 at that time.

 

 

 

The current conditions here in Okinawa include rain and clouds which is most likely residual from the typhoon which is hooking inward towards Taiwan.

 

 

 

Typhoon Bolaven will be within the immediate area of Okinawa within a 48 hour period making it important to ensure that residents are prepared with 2 or 3 days of non perishable rations in the event that the storm causes damage to local businesses or sticks around for quite a while. It is also important to take some time to clean up the areas in and around your house/apartment now ensuring that in the event that weather conditions continue to decline you can prevent damage and injury to those around you.

 

 

 

I will continue to update you on more details of this storm as they become available.

Another Typhoon Off The Coast Of Okinawa

Typhoon season is still in full swing here in Okinawa and therefore we can still expect storms once in a while. As you can see pictured below it looks like we have a storm on the the way but don't worry it doesn't seem like we will be experiencing too much bad weather. I imagine that this weekend we will get some weather like rain and some wind. I will be keeping you posted as to what it that we can expect here in the next day.

FMF: Speaking Japanese, Driving, Beauty Schools and Non-American Holidays

It's been another long week over here at ONK and there has been a lot of preparation taking place therefore I apologize for not being as on top of things as I usually am. With that being said let's go into today's topics.

"Do you speak Japanese?" 

I can speak some Japanese but not as much as I would like to. I can also read and write but my vocabulary is very limited as far as understanding most of what I am reading although I am improving every day through lots of tedious practice. I have a few different blog posts about this but I also plan to discuss more about this in the future in a video.

"Is it difficult to learn the ways of the road?"

Learning the ways of the road are relatively easy. We do drive on the "wrong" side of the road here although that is super easy to get used to if you focus on driving. The road signs are relatively easy to learn also because in my opinion they are straight forward, although, you can and should go online and study the signs especially because you will be tested when you arrive here in you choose to drive.

So what else is there to know about driving here. . . . there is a lot to talk about here and so I might not be able to cover every detail in this particular post or in the corresponding video. Let's see if I can go through a number of these without going  into too much detail and if you have any further questions please let me know and I will ensure that I get your answers to you as soon as possible.

- Call Phones: Put them down. It is illegal to use your cell phone while driving in Okinawa and you'll need all of your attention on the road anyway.

- Motorcycles and Scooters: They're out there and they use the road so be aware of them. They will also share a lane with cars from time to time which is perfectly legal.

- Three Car Rule At Lights: It is not uncommon to see up to three people run the red light before they are considered out of line. I would not advise doing this yourself because it can be very dangerous but it is something you should be aware of.

- Speeding when cops aren't around isn't necessarily the best idea because Okinawa is equipped with speed cameras which will take a photo if you are exceeding the limit and have a ticket mailed to you. Yes even if you are American. And they are not always obvious as they are in some of the US locations where they have been installed.

- There is a lot of traffic here and therefore you are significantly closer than you would be in your home town so be aware of this and pay attention to the road.

- There are stickers which indicate when a driver is over a certain age (very old) or a new driver. Be aware that if you strike one of these drivers you will most likely be at more fault for not keeping an eye out for them as they have stickers displayed.

- Everyone involved in an accident is responsible to some extent. Period.

- Don't drink and drive. They take that very seriously here not only for you the driver but everyone in the car and even people who sent you on your way knowing that you had some drinks.

I hope that this is helpful.

The last two topics I am not going to discuss because I have already made previous blog posts about them due to the involvement I wanted to provide in the answer. Thanks so much for reading and again please let me know if you have any other questions.

Typhoon Guchol passes without major damage

The very anticipated Typhoon Guchol struck Okinawa last night starting at approximately 5pm which is when the rain had started. At that time we had also started experiencing a little bit of wind but nothing too drastic. At this time we had started to recognize that the storm had been downgraded to a category three which meant that we could expect slightly less winds but it should have been a strong storm. Throughout the first part of the evening we had found ourself not really experiencing a great deal of wind. When checking the doppler it had shown that we were between two bands of storm which had resulted in the lack of drastic weather.

Over the course of the evening we really did not experience much wind nor did we experience much hard rain. I say this because my house if built like a house of cards and when we get rain or wind you can hear it clearly. There were two large gusts of wind that we had experienced over the course of the evening which had been surprising because with a category three it seems that we should have had more wind and rain. Either way it is a relief that we did not experience more wind and rain because it made today's clean up much easier. After going out and inspecting the outside of the house there doesn't seem to be much damage at all. The all famous palm tree which is often referenced in my storm videos seems to be fine.

Before I close this post I do want to thank all of you out there who had sent me and my family well wishes to stay safe over the course of this typhoon. It is incredibly kind of you. For those who showed concern know that we are well and there is nothing to worry about. For those of you who had wanted to see typhoon images and damage and the wrath of Guchol, I am sorry nothing exciting happened. Thanks for reading!

 

 

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Preparing for a Cat 4: Guchol kicked it up a notch

Waking up this morning I found myself making a regularly scheduled check on the tropical storm website that I check during this season. When I did I was surprised to find that the typhoon that is headed our way is now predicted to come at us at a category 4 (as of 0600 June 16). This was surprising to me because it is early in the season but nonetheless this doesn't change the fact that we have a storm headed our way. Before I continue on I feel that it is important for me to mention that there are a number of important facts to remember if you are reading this and are in Okinawa. First of all there is never a guarantee that the storm will follow the predicted path. We have these predictions to ensure that we have some warning and be prepared but there is still a chance that it could take a number of different paths or disappear all together.

Now that this is out of the way let's talk about what a typhoon is and what you should expect if you are here in Okinawa. To make it as simple as possible a typhoon is a wind storm which usually comes a long with rain although there are times when it doesn't and let me say that is an incredible interesting storm to experience (which I did the summer before last). They are incredibly easy to prepare for and are very survivable unlike some of the storms that you may encounter in the US or other countries. They are categorized according to the power of the wind that is traveling with the storm. There are tropical depressions and tropical storms which are the very basic warnings that there may be a typhoon on the way and then there are typhoons category 1 through 5. Category 1 is predicted to have approximately 90 mile per hour winds where a category 5 have winds over 156 miles per hour. All are possible and about 3 or 4 years ago we did have a cat 5 over here (which is also known as a super typhoon) but again you can prepare for these storms. In the case of this particular storm we are looking at winds to be approximately 130 miles per hour.

Being that you now understand what a typhoon is (roughly) let's talk about what is necessary to do in order to prepare for this type of storm. The first thing that you are going to want to do is ensure that you have enough supplies to get you through at least 7 days. These foods should be capable of being eaten with little prep time and should also be nonperishable. I understand that this may be difficult and therefore might not be as healthy as what you are used to but trust me when I say it is important to ensure that you have these foods. I am sure that there are some people out there who feel that 7 days is too long but the fact of the matter is that there are cases when you may be without food for this amount of time and so you want to be prepared. There was one storm a few years ago which had sat over us for 4 days and once it finally went away there was still over 24 hours before the roads were safe to drive on again and about 48 hours before the stores were open again. For some families, including my own, typhoon food is nutritious and as healthy as possible but I also take the advantage of getting some fun things to keep morale up because the fact is when you are in the house for more than 3 days non stop without being able to leave it can be difficult to handle and sometimes oreos are welcome. Of course it is also important to ensure that you have water available also. In some cases it is a good idea to ensure that you have the bath tub filled as well as bottled water.

There is also prep that needs to be taken care of outside of the house. When we have a storm, especially one cat 4, it is important to ensure that everything is taken into the house and/or storage rooms. There are also other helpful and interesting ways to put your outdoor items away like putting them in a car of van or in cases where you can not bring them in the house or put them in a secure area you can tie things down. Personally I feel that tying things down is not the best option because with steady winds of 130 to 140 miles per hour a cord is not necessarily going to keep things in place. I cannot stress how important it is to pick up your outdoor items. Any little doll or screw driver can be deadly during a storm like this and it is so important to ensure that you have taken care of your items in order to ensure that your assets are protected as well as the assets of those around you.

Overall preparing for a typhoon is relatively simple and can be done within a few hours (and your yard will look wonderful in the process so talk about a win win!). The most important thing to do, however, is to stay focused calm and do not worry about the storm. If you are going to focus energy focus it on the preparation and the rest of the storm will be a piece of cake!