Two Weeks, Two Typhoons

We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore. When a storm is making headlines here, it doesn’t get a name like Ivan or Sandy. Nope. Phanfone and Vongfong are the names of the two typhoons that have pummeled Okinawa since we arrived exactly two weeks ago. In the three years that Dane was stationed in Kansas he never experienced a tornado (much to his chagrin) but so far we are averaging a typhoon a week over here to make up for it.

Phanfone was the first, and came through last weekend. Although it didn’t impact us directly, we were stunned to find out that while we’d been camped out in our temporary lodging hotel, there had been four casualties on island.

Less than a week later though, the whole base was on high alert again, and we stood in a line that wrapped around all the way around the commissary to buy bottled water, canned and packaged goods. (Let’s be honest, I never hate having a legitimate excuse to buy my guilty pleasure: boxed macaroni and cheese.) Okinawa went into lock-down on Friday night and as of Sunday evening, while the base is technically in the recovery stage, we are still camped out on our couch, eating Dane’s fame-worthy soup, watching borrowed dvds, and listening to the winds howl by.

From Sydney’s perspective: typhoons are the coolest thing about living in Okinawa so far for three reasons.

• Fuzzy caterpillars somehow keep making their way into the hotel room despite her mom’s effort to keep them out.
• Mice or some other kind of small rodent seems to be taking shelter in the tree right outside our room which has made for a lot of exciting smelling opportunities.
• It’s kept mom and dad home all weekend. They’ve been camped out on the couch, binge watching 24, which has provided prime puppy cuddle opportunities.