My Blog Birthday

I'm thinking again that I've been in Japan too long. I noticed today that my blog will be one year old on the 20th of February. It doesn't feel like a year.
Today we had 春一番 (Haru Ichiban - The first gales of Spring). I decided I'd write about how the Japanese seasons proceed like clockwork and how predictable the weather is. But as I sat down to type, I realised I'd already written this exact entry before. I checked. It's there for all to see on March 7th 06. How sad is that! After only one year I'm running out of things to say.
So instead of the predictability, let's focus on the danger. Gales are really too nice a word for Haru Ichiban. It's at the change of the seasons where vastly different high and low pressure fronts meet and warm winds blast across the cold archipelago.
And I mean blow-off-your-roof-cut-out-your-power-toppled-trees-on-the-trainline winds!
I just got back from the supermarket and my sixty-five little kilos were very nearly lifted off the ground a couple of times in the two minute journey.
So we're at 'Code Orange': my current threat level assessment for living here in Japan right now.
I mean, taking into account the old favourites (earthquake, tsunami, typhoon, volcano) I now have to worry about my apartment being either blown DOWN (thank you Haru Ichiban) or blown UP (thank you protesters who set off a pipe bomb not twenty minutes from my house there the other day)!
Oy vey!