Typhoon Shanshan, predicted to be the worst typhoon to hit Japan since records began, is heading our way. My daughter is in Nagasaki and we are in Hiroshima. I don't think either city will be struck by the eye of the storm, but as the typhoon slows down we can expect it to dump massive amounts of rain over a wide area, causing floods, landslides, and power cuts over a wide area.
Teaching Today?
I'm hopeful that I can go to college and teach today (Thursday) as city transport (buses and trams) should keep on running here in Hiroshima all today. This afternoon I'm teaching three female police officers in an intensive summer course.
I teach two 90 minute classes back to back with the same three students. They are cheerful and engaging, so they are enjoyable to teach, but even so, if today's classes are cancelled, they will be added to the back end of next week's schedule, meaning we'd have two afternoons of four-and-a-half hours of class time - and that would be on the back of their having had three hours of class time with other teachers in the mornings! So, I really hope I can complete my classes today.
Actually, right now, although there has been some heavy rain in Hiroshima, things are pretty quiet, so I'm fairly confident that the classes will go ahead...
Shakespeare Conference Cancelled
The bummer is that after putting in quite a bit of effort to get my "Lucrece" paper ready for this Saturday's "Shakespeare and Modern Writers Conference" in Hirosima this weekend, the conference has been cancelled. The typhoon is expected to be passing by Hiroshima on Friday and Saturday so pretty much everything has been cancelled this weekend.
There was a proposal to hold the conference on Zoom, but I have no desire to deliver my paper via Zoom - I had enough of delivering online lectures during Covid. You have no idea if people are really listening or not - most likely NOT.
Also, the probability of power cuts and connectivity issues would be very high, to say nothing of the noise of the storm outside.
It seems that the other presenters felt the same way, so common sense has prevailed and the proposal has been rejected, so everything has been cancelled until next year.
Okay, time to get ready to head out and ... hopefully... teach my cheerful police officers and get back home before the shinola hits the fanola.
Wish me luck!
Cheers!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
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