Typhoon Lan

Early on Tuesday morning, Typhoon Lan made landfall on Honshu, Japan's main island, at a point about 200 kilometers south of Kyoto. The typhoon swept through Kyoto during the day on Tuesday, bringing heavy rain and gusty winds. Businesses and tourist attractions were nearly all closed, and a lot of flights and train services in the region were suspended. We basically spent the day inside, venturing out a couple of times when there was a relatively lull in the weather.

The photo below was taken in front of the main entrance of Ginkakuji, the Silver Temple, which is normally crowded with tourists at this time of day:

Some local businesses had taken steps to protect their property from potential typhoon damage:

The Philosopher's Path was empty, and the canal was getting a (much needed) boost to its water level:

Near the temple by our house:

By late afternoon, the wind had died down, although it was still raining. Shelley and I went for a stroll up and through the grounds of Honen-in temple:

In advance of the typhoon, Kyoto City authorities had posted various warnings and directions to further information.

Kyoto is fairly far inland, so it is not generally affected as much by typhoons as coastal areas of Japan. However, there have been damaging typhoons that have hit Kyoto in the not too distant past. The last typhoon to cause major flooding damage in Kyoto was back in 2013:

As for wind damage, we saw for ourselves during our 2019 visit the devastation that typhoons can cause, because a major typhoon had hit Kyoto a few months' before our arrival, in Fall 2018. The high winds damaged many buildings in Kyoto and toppled a lot of trees in the surrounding hills.

The final type of threat from typhoons is landslides. The city of Kyoto escaped any damage from landslides this time around, although photos were posted online of landslide damage elsewhere in Kyoto Prefecture: