Typhoon Season

7 July – 13 July

I was told it would be unlikely I would make it back to the island for at least a week.  I didn’t believe it until it happened.

It is important (and frustrating) to note that the weather itself has not been bad (yet).  The ocean waves are just too rough to make it across to the island.  Even though (and possibly because) the island is so close, the waves are especially rough between it and the mainland – waves come from both directions and meet into a choppy bay of no travel.

That is the boat dock...

My attempt to fly to Koshima.

Cecile, a French student at the Primate Research Institute/Kyoto University and her friend Clemence, a student at University of Montpellier, stayed here for 4 days.  It was so great to have the company, and to meet international primatologists!  Cecile has previously done fieldwork on Koshima, so she is familiar with the area and introduced me to some locals, which was fantastic.  Hooray for new friends!

They left back to Inuyama on Thursday, and when the weekend came, I was alone again (there are 2 people here working on weekdays though!).  However, Ichiki, the tiny hippie/surfer town the field station is located in, is not a bad place to be stuck!  I pretty much have a private beach, the area is tropical and beautiful.  Life is quite stress-free.

The Field Station.

Jog on the beach - gotta stay in shape for Koshima!

Is this from a squid? Does anyone know?

On Saturday I went to Cafe10, a café owned by the family Cecile introduced me to.  It was awesome!  They were also so kind to host me for dinner :)

But, while the weather has been nice with rough seas, this will not be the case for long. Here are some weather maps:

8 July: Oh man, three typhoons in the area!!  At least they are south of me.

11 July: But wait!  Typhooon #3 is moving north!

13 July: Holy crap!  It is coming right towards us! And there is a FORTH typhoon on the way!

Here is a map of the waves resulting from the southern typhoon (typhoon #2). I'm on the east coast of that big chunk of land near the middle.

Here is a current wave map.  Notice the legend…that is in METERS. 

The typhoon should hit sometime around Thursday.  Yesterday the post doc working at the field station gave me an emergency briefing.  Apparently there was an earthquake yesterday too, but I didn't feel it.  If there is a tsunami, an alarm will sound and I am supposed to run up a nearby hill to a high look-out.  If there is a bad typhoon or something of the sort, an announcement will be made in Japanese that will tell people to prepare, buy food, etc.  So, alarm = go to hill.  Voice over the speaker = stay in. 

Also, I have this:

 Wish me luck! :P