Typhoon Tapah (no 17 of the season) has bisected Japan and South Korea, passing along the Korea/Tsushima Strait and into the East Sea/Sea of Japan. There’s not space to get into the naming dispute here, but you should use the former names if you’re in South Korea and the latter when in Japan.
As is the norm, the cyclone has caused a great deal of transport disruption, although it seems not to have been a particularly damaging one as typhoons go. If you live in Japan, you can expect twenty or so a year, but only a handful will probably hit closely enough to affect you personally and it normally is just a matter of staying indoors.
That’s why I found comments made by Eddie Jones (England head coach) about how England were prepared to deal with the effects of the previous typhoon puzzling. He lived in Japan, so he should have known that the chances of them seriously affecting his team’s preparation were small to non-existent. It just seemed alarmist for the sake of it.
Having said that, the big ones can do a lot of damage: overturning vehicles, ripping off roofs, causing landslides and flooding that all can lead to the loss of life.
I’m into my fifth typhoon season here but it was not until the fourth, when Shizuoka took a couple of direct hits, that they were truly alarming on a personal level. It’s a rather unpleasant feeling when your apartment block is swaying like a ship and you’re watching your washing rock back and forth in the middle of your room…and your room is on the eighth floor.
Returning to rugby, there was a dearth of close contests yesterday. Italy got over an early scare before asserting themselves in a high scoring clash with Namibia. After that, Ireland and England comprehensively shut out Scotland and Tonga respectively. Both winners can feel they’ve put down a marker for the rest of the tournament. Italy might need to shore up their defence.
Today’s match is the first in Toyota as the land of my fathers, Wales, take on Georgia, a team I watched twice while I was living there. I’m expecting a very physical battle between two countries renowned for power and strength, although it’s hard to look beyond Wales for the win.
Yesterday’s Matches
Italy 47-22 Namibia (Hanazono Rugby Stadium, Osaka)
Ireland 27-3 Scotland (International Stadium, Yokohama)
England 35-3 Tonga (Sapporo Dome, Sapporo)
Today’s Match
Wales vs Georgia (1915 JST) (Toyota Stadium, Toyota)
Expression of the day
風が強いですね (kaze ga tsuyoi desu ne)
Which means…
It’s fairly windy, isn’t it!
TYPHOON TAPAH
