The edge of typhoon Chaba (#16) blew across Kanto last night. At 1 am, I woke to hear rain pouring down. 14 mm fell that hour—about 10% of the month’s quota all at once. The air was silvery grey with raindrops when I looked out the window.

This morning, the clouds play a time-lapse nature film. The atmosphere is blood temperature and gravid with humidity. Wind gusts 40 m/s from every direction and anything with makeshift aerodynamics—the watering cans, plants, tins of mosquito coils—now floats in the small pond on our veranda that formed in the rain.

The sky is lightening even as I type this and the weather forecast predicts a hot sunny day by noon. Don’t bother with an umbrella today.