July 27-31, 2004 - we go camping in the Japan Alps while a typhoon devastates the surrounding countryside.
No, we weren’t fleeing yet another natural disaster. We were the victims of something worse: terrible timing. A typhoon was the last thing on our minds when we were planning our trip the previous month. But July came, and with it several typhoons. While this particular typhoon was not expected to affect Kobe, it WAS expected to blow right through our destination, Kamikochi in the Japan Alps. But reservations had been made, and a phone call assured us that the typhoon hadn’t beaten us to our camp site. So we left Kobe with our van packed with camping gear, ready for 4 days of what the Chinese would call “interesting times” in a tent in the middle of Typhoon Central. But guess what? After bit of wind and rain the first night, we had 3 glorious days of sunshine. Typhoon? What typhoon?
