I got to Tokyo just before Typhoon Hagibis made landfall. Japan shut down its bullet trains and the news was full of stories talking about the historic nature of the storm, the most powerful to ever touch mainland Japan. There wasn’t really much to do but shelter in place, I’d walk around from time to time and watch my umbrella invert in the wind.
I remember eating a lot of strange and delicious things from konbini’s and wondering if I had made the wrong choice putting myself in the line of fire of something so powerful. I didn’t feel like I was going to die, but it seemed like a vague possibility.
I ended up being fine even though it felt a bit terrifying while it was happening. I think the typhoon did something like $15B worth of damage and 98 people died. While it was causing chaos I was on the phone with a friend in the States discussing whether climate change was to blame and noting how strange it was that everyone was using single use plastic to protect themselves from an event that could have found its roots in that kind of behavior.