Typhoon Melor

This typhoon is passing well east of the Okinawan mainland, but typhoons pull a huge radius. This one has 132mph sustained winds right now a couple hundred miles away, but the winds are strong enough here in the Kerama Islands to cancel all the boats and bring out all the typhoon preparations.

Today I was working at Geruma when I was informed to go back on the 12:15 boat to Zamami because it would be the last of the day. They've already pulled that boat from the water in anticipation of tomorrow, so I'll be working on Zamami. Also Zamami has canceled Zamami Matsuri (festival), which was scheduled for this Saturday. This is the second cancellation (the first was for the flu) and they've rescheduled it to be during my trip to America. :(

[All the boats get pulled from the water]

[Except the boats that are too big - they're tied down in 8-10 different directions]

I usually complain that the boat-canceling storms always come on weekends. Next time I do that somebody remind me of this storm, which is hitting Tuesday-Thursday.

[When typhoons are scheduled to come in, mainland Japan surfers buy their tickets to Okinawa. We have at least four here right now hoping for big waves - sorry, no surfers in this picture, just waves]

[Closed shutters - and the inside is full of all the picnic tables that were previously outside. Preparing for an incoming typhoon is really a lot of work.. but they sure are fun!]