Day 43: The passing storm
Typhoon Hagibis passed through Japan causing significant damage to the southeastern coast, and sadly caused many fatalities. For me, I was lucky to be on the edge of the massive storm. I look back now and realize how fortunate I was to be drawn into staying longer in Kyoto that I had originally planned. The initial idea was to spend one week in Kyoto, then live on the road as I moved towards Tokyo, making only short stops along the way. However I fatefully decided to stay longer with my friends Noeli and Maca at the Hanakanzashi hostel, and in doing so unknowingly took myself out of the path of serious harm. Were I to have kept walking on the original schedule, I would have been two weeks further ahead, and dead center for the typhoon making landfall on the southern coast of Japan, at the mercy of an incredibly massive, powerful and indifferent storm. As it stood however I instead found myself staying north of Nagoya with an American Expat named Mandy, talking about ...