while the typhoon hovers
exciting japan
This haiku is something of an inside joke. Maybe some of the other residents of Japan floating around on this network will get the joke. But don't worry—I'm going to explain.
A week or so ago, there was an earthquake around Kyushu, and this set off alerts that the big Nankai quake was coming. A giant quake has been expected somewhere along the Nankai Trough for many years. Living in Aichi, I have been hearing people panic about the "Tokai Quake" for nearly 20 years. I am closest to the Tokai, or the Tonankai areas on the map, so that is what they generally call it here, but it is thought that it could happen anywhere along the Nankai Trough. As far as I know, this prediction is based entirely on studying past Nankai Trough quakes, which generally seem to occur every 150 years. Based on that, we are well overdue for another. Oh yeah—and this Nanai Trough quake is expected to be a 9 or above, causing a lot of damage. If it occurs more near the Tokai area, this damage could be pretty bad. The government predicts, well, let's just say a lot of deaths.
Anyway, so there was a recent alert and an ensuring panic that saw all supermarkets sold out of various things. Fun times. The Elevated alert lasted for a week or so, but then was cancelled. So everyone is relaxing again. ...until the next alert, when everyone will panic again.
The next fun event is the typhoon. It's a pretty big one. It's been coming for a few days, seemingly slowing down more and more. Now it seems to be just hovering right off the coast of Kyushu like the giant red spot on Jupiter, just sitting there, throwing chaotic weather to the rest of Japan. There has been flooding in Aichi where I am and even up into Tochigi, above Tokyo, which is having tons of it. The typhoon was originally forecast to already be past Japan by now, but like I said, it seems to be have stopped and is content just to hover.
Fun times.
Several years ago there was a tourism campaign to attract people to Japan. This was years before Japan became the travel destination and the over-tourism problems of today hit. This campaign featured various posters showing off aspects of Japanese culture, technology, and lifestyle. Each image was labeled something like "Historic Japan", "Cool Japan", "Trendy Japan", etc. So yeah, that is what my last line hints it. Let's think of a poster featuring earthquakes and typhoon. Exciting Japan!
Yes, that makes this haiku something of a sarcastic dark humor haiku. I sometimes think Gen X, of which I am a member, was raised on this kind of humor, so it does seem pretty normal to me at times. We were all told we'd likely die in some nuclear war with the Soviets and had a number of movies showing us this situation. Even our comedies involved hints of it ("Shall we play a game?"). So the dark sarcasm became a mainstay of our personalities. Better to laugh at things than let them get you down, eh?
I'm having a bit of fun with this anyway, but it is something of a bad situation right now. The flooding isn't the worst of the typhoon. In a country with a lot of mountains, too much rain brings landslides, and that is never good. Let's all hope this typhoon speeds up and passes quickly. And needless to say, I think we would all be happy if the Nankai Trough megaquake holds off for another 50 years.
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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon. |