Ding dong, the typhoon is gone!

Yeah, by 2 pm today, suddenly everything looks 10,000 times brighter.

Maybe it is because:
1) The cursed online research has finally wrapped. Now we just need to transcribe it.
2) My report for the research in Sapporo has been finalized at 2 pm on the dot.
3) The violent typhoon no. 9 has finally passed, and Tokyo is now blue-skied and dry

All I have got left is this one usability research over the weekend, but soon after that, come Monday I will be well on my way to I-N-D-O-N-E-S-I-A!
Le maman et le papa, I'm coming home for a week! Oui!
Oh, yes, my frérot is also going to be in town during that week, so I'm looking forward to see him then, too.

... on the topic of typhoon

Living in Japan you're definitely no strangers to some natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, and the likes. You get them quite frequently. Sometimes some are bigger than others (remember this?), sometimes it's just a mild variety of your day to day life.

Typhoon is one of those, too.
Basically the word 'typhoon' in Japanese means 'a big wind'. In reality, not only the wind is whirling violently, it also always comes together with rain.
For the two days typhoon #9 loomed over Tokyo, we had a very strange weather. For 10 minutes it was raining, and then sunny, and then the sky tore open and in came the storm. All the while, the wind was blowing violently. Around 11 pm last night the eye of the typhoon arrived. I was fast asleep by then only to be awaken by loud "CLANG!" out on my balcony. I looked outside and saw the big wind had swung my patio table over the small BBQ. Those things are not light, which is enough to explain just how powerful the wind was.

Come 11 am, suddenly stillness filled the air. The typhoon had passed Tokyo, on its way North to Hokkaido. Leaving Tokyo dry with stunning blue sky.

Always an interesting phenomenon, typhoon is. In fact, one of my favorite past time is to stay snuggled up indoors during a typhoon. Let the wind and the rain go mad, I am indoors drinking a cup of cocoa... or in last night's case, eating a slice of delicious mango.

A ray of mango

One of my friend is an insurance inspector. And these days he's inspecting fruit shipments. Last week he asked me if I liked mangoes. Of course I said "YES!"
So he said, "OK, a mango is coming your way soon!"

My friend is leaving for a short holiday in Bali tomorrow and knowing that he's very busy before his departure, I wasn't expecting to see him nor the mango anytime soon. All my hopes for mangoes had vanished, I have sort of given up on that.

Until suddenly a phone call arrived last night, in the middle of a typhoon, and it was my insurance inspector friend.
"Hey, I'm coming over with your mango. Be there in 20 minutes!"

Next thing I know, at 11 pm at night, with the rain pouring hard outside and the winds blowing noisily, the doorbell rang.

There he was. Holding a mango in his hands, with the biggest mischievous grin pasted on his face, my friend shouted, "Delivery for Taiko Tari!"

Thank you, thank you, Dear Friend. That was terribly sweet of you bringing the mango all the way to my place in the middle of a horrid weather. Thank you!
Now I want le franc and grapefruits, anything in the shipment collection? Ha!