Tokyo Typhoon!

It sounds like the punchline for a joke: "How was your vacation?" "Fine, other than the typhoon."

Yes, a typhoon hit Tokyo this morning. Yet at present, the sun is actually visible behind the clouds, as the tropical cyclone spins its way north toward Hokkaido.

The winds are still pretty fast, and train service was disrupted, so we'll scratch Tokyo Tower today. But the storm's biggest impact on us was last night, when heavy rain and winds preceded the typhoon. We saw the cheap white plastic umbrellas, popular with commuters here, smashed and torn and littered across streets. The storm dashed rain against the windows in the early morning, but otherwise, knock wood, we're not affected.