Ain't No Sunshine

It seems like my entire past year and two months spent in Japan have all been part of one, long rainy season. There seems to be much confusion about just when the official rainy season begins and ends. Some books will say that the rainy season in generally from early June to mid July. Some books have mentioned two rainy season, one being in the spring and one being in the fall. I would have to say that I am now thinking that the rainy season, more simply, just may never end.

And frankly I am not sure I even want it to! When it isn’t raining in the summer and fall, it seems that the humidity makes you feel like you are at the end of a long battle with emphysema and dealing with daily sweat rings under your butt cheeks. When it isn’t raining in the winter or spring, it seems that the dry air forces you into a long-term commitment with an intense moisturizer, which still does little to make your skin not feel like it isn’t going to crack open and spill out your insides.

When it rains, at least the humidity seems to be a relative constant… wet. It doesn’t matter if it is the hot rain or dry rain… it’s all wet.

Often the rain pours downs and feels like it is threatening the foundations of our home. Often it is merely a drizzle, but a drizzle that falls in such magnitude with other rain pellet-y friends that it might as well just downpour already.

Today is yet another day that it is raining. According to the weather report, the front is stretching from the northern most tip of the island to the southern most so we all will get to share in yet promises to be another glorious day or rain and gray skies. I’m no meteorologist, but the skies must have something to do with this being an island. That’s fine and all, but would it hurt for a tiny bit more blue? I can’t remember when I saw blue last.

This past weekend, Typhoon Fitow made a direct hit on this area. It was my first solid experience with a typhoon. Sure, there was Man-yi in July, but with out traveling, we missed out on the worst of it. Fitow on the other hand freaked me the hell out. The nearby navy base was shut down for two days. I stayed huddled into my house and steered clear of the second floor, where I was just sure the howling and whistling winds were prepared to suck off the roof and send me and my stuffed comfort duck flying into the air like Dorothy and Toto. After I did trek upstairs to try to get some shuteye, I barely kept them closed as the creaking got louder when the wind forced the walls of our house to move. Around 3 am, I decided to check on the scene outside. In my pjs and still with my stuffed duck, I crept out of bed, snuck downstairs and opened the front door, only to have branches and leaves come flying into the house to escape the winds that had just been tossing them down the narrow street. I took some tentative steps out of out entryway and into our driveway, but the minute the wind gave me its first solid push that moved me a few steps to my side, I charged back through the front door, proving I really didn’t have the guts to stand in the alley and see if I could fly.

They are calling for rain today, tomorrow, the next day and the day after that. Thank God I am out of here quite soon for another jaunt. Where brighter… BLUER… skies shall be upon me.