All of Tokyo battened down the hatches today. It has been torrential since early this morning and by 3 am (officially Friday) the full force of the 11th typhoon to hit Japan will be upon the Kanto region. It's amazing. The wind and the rain is practically deafening at times on the shutters. Winds are at over 100 km an hour. I don't want to go to bed. I'm tired, but I don't want to miss listening to a moment of it.
Most people that know me know that I like the rain. I few people who know me really well, know that I REALLY like the rain. I had no idea how much of a psychological impact rain has on me until today. The sun sucks my will to live. And I don’t mean the sun in general, but the heat, then constant droning heat takes all living impulses out of my body. Tonight I got a quick break between classes and ventured out in the pre-typhoon weather to grab some take-out sushi. It was exhilarating. I was positively giddy by the time I got back to the school, not to mention thoroughly wet. I wasn't impatient once today while teaching. That's a miracle, especially considering the 5 lumps of flesh I have to teach on this day. I was excited to be there, I was more interactive, I was really enjoying my day. I realized it in the middle of my class. I was comfortable. I didn't want to gauge my eyes out and crawl out of my own skin and it made such a difference to my interaction with people.
I love rain. I love the coolness it brings to the air. I love the feel of it on my skin. I love the strength in the wind. I feel like a normal person. I feel tonight the way I felt sitting on the beach in Zushi last week, connected. I respond to water. This morning as I was lying in bed, listening to the rain, wishing I could will time to stop at my every whim, I was looking at my pictures on my wall. There's like 70 of them. Of those 70 or so, there's 7 that are not near the water (that's 2 of Mantua in Italy, 2 of London, 1 of Paris, 1 of Chitchen Itza in Mexico and 1 in Strasbourg France, and for the record, all but Chitchen are within a few minutes walk to rivers), there are about 7 that are within a 10 minute drive of the ocean (all on the Island), and all the rest are within about 500 feet of a body of water (lake or, mostly, ocean). It made me realize just how important being around water is to me. Tonight I rode my bike home without an umbrella and it was positively glorious.
