A Wet Weekend

Typhoon Talas

We had a typhoon that passed through this weekend. The rain and winds started on Friday and lasted until Sunday, making it nice and cool for the first time since I have arrived. We enjoyed the break from the hot, windless weather that we were having, but tragically there are quite a few people dead or missing from this storm. There was absolutely no flooding in our part of town, which surprised me, since during hurricanes in Houston there was always a foot or more of standing water.

My mother, who lives in Vermont, had an insanely destructive hurricane that passed through last week. Here are a few crazy pictures of what Hurricane Irene thought of Vermont's infrastructure.

First meal on our new kotatsu

Despite the strong winds and buckets of rain, we still managed to get few important things done and have some fun. On Saturday we visited Nitori, where we bought a kotatsu, computer desk, an area rug and storage shelves and bins for our closets. Our neighbours were nice enough to watch the kids so we could relax while we looked around the store. I absolutely loved how basically everything in the store was created with tiny Japanese rooms in mind. There wasn't one giant, overstuffed, single function monstrosity in the place. I loved the array of legless chairs and short tables, desks, and couches. Their furniture style was very Ikea-esque, but with most of the legs hacked off.

On Sunday, Karlee left  for a week to visit a friend of hers who lives in Kyushu. Afterwards, Dustin, the boys, and I went to check out our city's Castle. Fukuyama Castle is downtown, about a 20 minute walk from our apartment. We were rained on the whole time, but even William didn't seem to mind walking around in the drizzle. Theo has been extremely excited about going to the castle, so even though we didn't go inside, he had a great time walking around the castle grounds.

Winding our way up the hill to the Castle

Storming the gates

The main castle with Dustin and kids in foreground

The beautiful park in the castle grounds

William doesn't care if he gets rained on, as long as he is outside!