When a typhoon hits Tokyo, there isn’t really much to fear. In the 6 years I’ve lived in Tokyo , every time a warning is issued there has never been any danger. I remember days of drinking beer with my colleagues after work on days of typhoons . The wind in your face was refreshing.

Here are some photos of the April 2012 typhoon that hit Tokyo. This particular typhoon that hit was obviously dangerous, especially for the elderly and children as random objects flew like projectiles. News reported that one elderly woman was killed when the wind knocked her over and she hit her head –  rest her soul. I was in the middle of my work day , wearing a suit with no umbrella but I decided to take my 35mm and shoot a little. I came back with mostly blurry, out of focus frames as a result of rain all over my lens and terrible case of camera shake due to the gusty winds.

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Japanese airlines canceled hundreds of flights, some train services were halted and thousands of workers went home early as some of the strongest winds in more than 50 years hit Tokyo today.

The weather agency issued a tornado warning for the Tokyo area after the storm dumped as much as 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) of rain an hour in central Japan as it crossed from the southwest, with winds gusting up to 140 kilometers (87 miles) an hour. An 82-year-old woman died after being knocked over by the wind and hitting her head, national broadcaster NHK reported.

“Our company closed early but I stayed longer to finish work,” said Akio Fukuzaki, an engineer waiting in line at a Tokyo train station for operations to resume. “I should have left earlier.”

As many as 11,500 households have lost power because of the storm in Toyama and Ishikawa prefectures, Hokuriku Electric Power Co. (9505) said in a statement. At least 60 people have been injured in 17 prefectures, NHK reported, showing a golf driving range destroyed in Hiroshima in western Japan.

Sustained winds in Tokyo may reach 90 kph during its evening peak, Takeo Tanaka, head of the weather advisory office at theJapan Meteorological Agency, said in a telephone interview. That would make it the strongest storm to hit the capital since 1959, when Tokyo was buffeted by winds of 97 kph, data from the weather agency show.

“People should try to avoid going out,” Tanaka said. “It’s very unusual for Tokyo to have such strong winds when there’s not a typhoon,” he said, referring to the tropical storms that regularly strike Japan between May and October.

 

sourced from:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-03/japan-s-strongest-storm-since-1959-forecast-to-slam-into-tokyo.html