Ueno Park - Zoo and the Typhoon

About the time I was in Japan, we heard about a horrible typhoon farther south, towards Hong Kong. I didn't know much about it, and since I didn’t sleep much on the trip from Nara to Tokyo, I was really too tired to think properly.

But, short version, there was a typhoon heading north as well, and the very edge of it brushed over Ueno while I was there.

But this all happened while I was in the Ueno Zoo. This is the oldest zoo in Japan, and somehow it survived WWII. Currently, its most popular attraction is the Chinese panda:

Not that there aren't other adorable animals too...

It's Anamay!

Anyway, it had been drizzling periodically all day, so I was't overly concerned with the fact that it was raining a little harder. My shoes were getting damp, but I had a raincoat-type thing, so I wasn't overly worried.

But right when I was going past the otters, the floodgates of heaven suddenly opened. In the blink of an eye, it went from fairly damp to everything soaking. It cut right through my coat, and my shoes, and soaked all my paper maps (not my phone, thankfully). 

I dashed inside the nearest building, the night exhibit, and hung out there to wait out the downpour. It was over surprisingly quickly, so I snuck out and tried to keep walking. Of course, by this point, I was completely drenched and getting a little chilly. I still stuck it out in the zoo until it closed, and by this point, I was just happy to hop on the subway and get back to my hostel to relax. 

When I got back, I saw the weather channel playing in the common room, and on the map, they showed the corner of a typhoon passing over Tokyo. 

So yes, I was stuck in a typhoon. 

I went out to dinner and came back, and no sooner did I get inside than I heard the sound of really loud rain pelting down. The typhoon was back! I stayed inside my capsule and did as much writing as I could, and the entire time, I listened to the sound of the typhoon outside. It was, to put it mildly, very windy. 

So, that was my first typhoon! Ah, good times.