It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring...

Typhoon Roke hit Japan today, and I must say, I'm kind of enjoying it.  Now, this is easy for me to say, as we are really on the fringes of the storm.  I'm sure people in southern Japan, especially in Nagoya, won't share this sentiment.  But here in Sendai the typhoon has just amounted to some wind and nonstop rain for the past 48 hours (and still going).  Two nights ago, when the rain started, I was thrilled about the cooler temperatures (it has been ridiculously hot here until the typhoon started) and the relaxation brought on by the steady drone of rain falling.  The way my mood perked up as I walked to class in my rain gear and rain coat with the rain pouring, you would have thought it was a nice spring day after a long winter!  Kris and I even went on a rain walk last night after class!

Today the rain continued, and I wasn't the least bit disappointed, as it lulled me back to sleep -- it is Wednesday after all, the weekly Marshall family sleep in day.  As we got ready for work, Kris' boss called and offered to pick us up for work so we didn't have to walk in the downpour.  That was so nice of him!  When he picked us up, he told us that classes had been cancelled for the day -- and we didn't realize until a few minutes into the conversation that he was telling the truth and not joking.  I thought, yeah, right!  This is Japan - they won't cancel classes just for rain!  But when he told us that other schools had canceled for the day or sent students home early and that some trains had stopped running, we realized he was serious.  Neither of us had ever lived in a place where school had ever been canceled for rain, so we had a hard time grasping it.  I guess that goes to show you how little we know about typhoons and hurricanes!

What I like about this rain is that it seems to coax the city into a sleepy, quiet, lazy existence -- just temporarily.  It's kind of like a big snow fall in that sense. At school we both had quiet work days.  It was nice to be able to work ahead and have meetings so that we won't be frantic later in the week or have to come in early this week. Oh, and by the way, Monday and Friday are national holidays, so the students only had 4 normal class days to begin with this week anyway!

One of Greg's students, who always comes late and often misses school for various vacations, came early today and set up his classroom for him -- even though there was no one in the building and no lights were on (because our classrooms are in a building in the upper campus).  Then the student left.  And Greg had to walk up the hill in the rain and put all the set up away.  It was pretty funny considering this would never happen on any other day!

After work, a bunch of us went to get udon at a nearby restaurant because no one wanted to work until the cafeteria opened and no one wanted to go home and come back to work and walk home again in the rain.  Two coworkers drove us all to the restaurant, but afterwards there wasn't room for both Kris and I (as he had gotten dropped off by someone else), so we walked home.  The wind was blowing the rain sideways, so we both got soaked despite having umbrellas.  I laughed the whole way home about the absurdity of the situation and how both of us had considered wearing our raincoats and then changed our minds.

We're cozied up now under warm blankets while the rain continues to come down.  I'll enjoy falling asleep to the rain tonight because I'm pretty sure tomorrow life will be back to normal and the rain will stop.  I just hope the hot weather doesn't come back.