Too Windy

One very calm, probably summer day.

It is windy again in Tokyo today. It just seems we've had more very windy days this year than in previous years, I'm not sure if I'm correct, I can't find any confirmation. Scenes with bikes blown over like this person photographed are quite common.

I'm struggling to keep clothes on the "line" outside. Actually most of our clothes are hung on poles on our narrow 2nd floor balcony. A couple of years ago I wrote about doing laundry in Japan. This morning I found some of my washing dragging in the dirt that's coating the floor of the balcony. The pole had blown out of the metal "V" it sits in. I brought the washing inside after that.

Most of my "laundry hangers" have
their own "pegs" like this.

Last Wednesday I also brought the washing inside after I found one of my plastic "hangers" in the garden. The gusts were terrible that day, I had to walk past the fields near our house four times and could feel the grit hitting my face. At this time of year the fields don't have much planted in them and the soil is very dry, so it just blows everywhere.

But the gusts that day must have been especially severe. It isn't common that my "pegged on" hangers blow off the pole. I'm just thankful it landed in my garden and didn't sail into anyone else's or onto the road. That evening when we went to karate, I saw someone else's hanger "hanging" on a roadside bush a long way from its original position.

Washing in the bare post-winter garden.

Thursday, the day after the big gusts last week, it rained. We really could have done with the rain first, so then all the dust coated surfaces became mud-coated. On Friday I was in and out of the house all day. At one point, when I came home between errands, I found a little pile of dirt and rubbish in my gutter (see photo). My elderly neighbour is a little fixated on gutter sweeping, as I've written about before. So, I dutifully swept it up, as well as the rest of my gutters. I think she's augmented the pile with some of the dirt from the gutter outside her house.

The pile of dirt my neighbour "kindly" swept
up and left on my side of our boundary.

An Australian equivalent would be my neighbour mowing part of my slightly neglected lawn and dumping the clippings (plus a few of her own) on my lawn. Not very subtle!

I could really do without the wind. Thankfully I don't have allergies as many here do. Nor do I have a cough that's irritated by the dust, but I feel sorry for those who do. And also for those who must be out in it more often than I.

While I'm glad that this heralds spring and warmer weather (I don't even have a heater on at the moment, it is around 18 degrees inside, wonderful), I'm inclined to think that spring without the gusty winds would definitely be more enjoyable.

I'm also hoping that our camping trip next week will coincide with a slightly calmer day, otherwise it could be a challenging trip!