Typhoon #11, Mawar, came and went without much incident. Frankly I was a little disappointed, especially with the less-than-pleasant follow up weather [See, after typhoon #2, Banyan, the deer and the antelope roamed, never was heard a discouraging word, and some other pleasant stuff happened . . . it was great. But quite the contrary post-Mawar]. I was not, however, disappointed in the name Mawar. It's very tropical. Japanese folk just use the numbers, not the names, but I feel that the WMO has got it right with their creative name usage.

I've discovered that if one listens to enough JPop, one may actually start to like it. A friend of mine told me that. I've also learned that if one starts to memorize kanji, even accidentally, the thirst for kanji knowledge will become insatiable, at least until boredom sets in. You've been warned.