I awoke today from a dark dream to an even darker day--though calm because most of my forty dormmates had left for their respective home stays, and soothing because the raindrops sounded beautiful hitting the windows and roof; it would be a mistake to call today relaxing.

There was a typhoon raging outside, the culmination of what had up until now been an endless rainfall, grounding all domestic flights, lashing beach areas with 100 m.p.h. winds, halting the trains and subways, and drenching Tokyo with about 12 inches of water in less than 10 hours.

But it sounds so much worse than it really is.

I know, from firsthand experience.

At about 2 p.m. I was still sleeping off the worst of my cold, but a nagging ache in my stomach reminded me that no recovery is complete without food. So I put on my shorts, cinched my belt and donned my "Nebraska" hoody. Represent.

It was time to head to the station.

I paused at the front door to the deserted dormitory and gazed out into the road, searching the sky for the sun which was completely obscured. Ha! Typhoon! That's what you call this Japan?

It was hardly raining. I've seen worse during a Nebraska thunderstorm--Granted those midwestern supercells only seem to last about 1 hour at most, and this has been going on for the better part of a week, with constantly increasing intensity... but still--what was there to fear?

I dried the seat off of bicycle number two, hopped on and raised my pink umbrella to the sky in a humble attempt at defense.

The ride down was really no problem whatsoever. There had been a slight break in the rain, prompting my journey, but as I was loading old bicycle number 2 up with my groceries, I watched the wind whip the raindrops outside into a furious cyclone, shooting little rain-darts all around the station area, drops that managed to land upon those of us who had even sought protection beneath covered storefronts.

Pah. I've seen worse in Nebraska.

So back onto number 2, back down the road, and then down that next road, and that next road, and then finally to the front door of the dorm. It was actually a lot easier than I thought. If you don't mind being wet, you probably won't mind a typhoon.

Today truly was relaxing... I suppose. No sunlight, the sweet symphony of raindrops and a nearly deserted dormitory (only Japanese and Korean students leftover... and myself of course. To quickly digress, I am not doing homestay because there were no vegetarian families available, I am one of 6 foreign exchange students out of 40 who are not doing the homestay. OK?)

It's truly wonderful.

And now that the typhoon is over, I must prepare for clubbing in Shibuya with Frank, Jerry and Masashi...