As Typhoon #15 (“Roke”) passed South of Shikoku last night, all was fairly calm here in Takamatsu, with a light to moderate rain falling in the center of town. The biggest thing I noticed was a single bomb-like thunderclap before midnight when the rain was at its peak. Nonetheless, the typhoon panic led to various school and public facility closures. The ferries were back online, but it was funny that yesterday when they were starting to panic shutdown for the impending storm, conditions were so amazingly calm, whereas today when it was all “safe”, conditions were borderline stomach-churning. There were some legitimate road and facility closures on nearby Ougishima and Megishima due to small landslides or road washouts, but many of the much-touted art sites in the towns remained closed because staff were told to stay home because of the storm. At least this evening dinner was easier to find, as opposed to finding restaurants closed or closing early “because of the typhoon”. I can understand exercising adequate caution, but this event snowballed into a national panic (especially down South where the effects were mild), and I don’t mean this in hindsight – in the days running up to the arrival of the storm at it’s nearest passing point, it was deadly calm with just sporadic drizzling. People were shutting things down days in advance because of the media hype and not actual observed conditions.
Now in the Tokai and Kantou regions, the panic was deserved, as the typhoon and the preceeding band of heavy rainfall cranked the area with disastrous flooding and landslides. I’m not trying to make light of the destruction and suffering there: I’m trying to bring to light how much people have become sheep to the media. I am thankful to the old dude who kept his okonomiyaki shop open last night after deciding it just wasn’t that bad outside. Observe, think, and make your own decisions, people!
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