Typhoons 'n Earthquakes 'n Tsunamis, Oh My!

Ok, so I'm only kidding about the Tsunamis, which I guess isn't funny.

Japan did, however, get hit by a typhoon and then earthquake, all in two days' time! The typhoon went over Kyushu island, where Nagasaki and Fukuoka are (not the same island I'm on, but very close) on Saturday. There were threats that it would hit my region, but besides a lot of rain, a little wind and a few dark clouds later that day, I didn't notice much change from usual.

Did you know the only difference between a typhoon and a hurricane is that they originate on different sides of the International Date Line?

And then we had an earthquake in the Niigata prefecture. Actually, I slept through it and only found out because my friend Naomi (in Northern California!) sent me an e-mail asking if I was ok. I didn't feel a thing.

I've been asked how I can live somewhere with such crazy natural disasters. Well honestly, there were tornadoes in Wyoming, hurricanes in Virginia, blizzards in Connecticut, earthquakes in California, fires or floods in more than one of each of those, and at this point, I feel like you just choose which ones you'd rather face. Next month I'm climbing an active (but dormant) volcano, so maybe I'm not the best person to ask...