Typhoon Ma-on heads for Japan

If you have plans to hit a beach this coming week, or perhaps go hiking around Tokyo, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on the weather. As Nadeshiko Japan celebrated their extraordinary world cup win last night, the Japan Meteorological Agency quietly monitored the course of Typhoon Ma-on, a particularly ferocious storm that achieved typhoon status three days ago.

As typhoon Ma-on heads straight towards the western part of Japan this morning, the JMA has issued a severe weather warning for areas of Kyushu, Shikoku, Kinki and Tokai. Further details can be found here. People are advised to stay away from the coastline, rivers and areas that could be affected by landslides until the warning passes.

Typhoon Ma-on updates

Readers around the country have been sending us on-the-ground information regarding Typhoon Ma-on. If you have anything to add, including pics, videos, etc, send it to us via our Twitter account, our Facebook account or or by emailing the editor. Please note, by submitting a comment you are accepting that it may be edited for house style and used on this page.

Wednesday, July 20

9.30am: Reports this morning say that Ma-on, yesterday a category two typhoon, has now been downgraded to a tropical storm. The weakening storm is now moving at approximately 10kph and looks set to miss Fukushima altogether, which was of course the original fear. Tokyo can still expect winds of over 50 knots per hour, however, so expect to get plenty wet before the day is over, and be on your guard in rural areas. Flash flooding and swollen rivers have caused problems in central Japan, as this video from the Takase River area of Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture shows. The video was uploaded earlier this morning, showing the flooding that took place overnight.

Tuesday, July 19

9.30pm: The Yomiuri Online is reporting that, as of 7pm this evening, Typhoon Ma-on was on a northeasterly trajectory, traveling at approximately 15kpm, 60km southwest of Cape Muroto, Kochi Prefecture. Amazingly, the prefecture has measured 1,000mm of rain over the last 24 hours, the most experienced since records began. The article also says that four international flights were cancelled in Japan today, while JAL cancelled 158 domestic flights and ANA cancelled 221.

9.00pm: Apologies for our absence – the Time Out Tokyo server went down, though we're told it had nothing to do with Ma-on. In Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, from where we're writing this blog, there's a cool, refreshing breeze blowing and the cicadas are in full song – nothing to suggest that a heavy typhoon is on the way. However, during the time we've been away, we've been sent some links to a series of time lapse videos that people are filming around the country, this one apparently shot on an iPhone over the course of the day. Watch it through until the end; the darkening clouds are fairly dramatic.

5.30pm: The Mainichi Daily is reporting winds of 198kph at the centre of Typhoon Ma-on, and record-breaking rainfall in Umaji Village, Kochi Prefecture (730mm in 24 hours). The article also notes that about 300 flights have been cancelled across the country.

Elsewhere, we're continuing to see videos of what may be Japan's latest summer boom - the somewhat questionable sport of typhoon surfing. The clip below was filmed in Aichi Prefecture yesterday.

4.20pm: The destructive force of Typhoon Ma-on is being felt around Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture, where 31 families (61 people) in the Hongu-cho area have had to evacuate following landslides, so ANN News reports in the video below. Swollen rivers and waterfalls are shown as the typhoon heads northeast along mainland Japan.

2.30pm: NHK are reporting that Typhoon Ma-on has caused severe damage to the roads and levees in Aki City, Kochi Prefecture. As the image below shows, the damage stretches for approximately 200 metres along the coastline.

1.15pm: The videos are coming in thick and fast now, prompting us to question the sanity of the videographers. It's an interesting quirk of the modern world that normal folk feel compelled to run outside with a digital device whenever catastrophic things take place around them.

Still, without them we wouldn't have videos such as this one, uploaded sometime shortly after midday today, showing Typhoon Ma-on battering the coast of Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku. A word of warning before you click play: turn the volume down, unless you want your speakers blown.

12.40pm: This video, made yesterday in Chiba, was posted by YoutTube user Supmasa. We'd like to re-title it: What to do in a typhoon if you have a death wish. Some beautiful shots there, though.

12.15pm: A few lunchtime updates have come in concerning Typhoon Ma-on and it's inexorable approach. @JapanBrew has stopped tweeting about beer for the day and has turned his attentions to the storm. From Ise City in Mie Prefecture, he writes to tell us,'They just issued storm warnings across the prefecture, although we have had heavy rain since yesterday. I am hearing local reports of schools sending students home.'

Meanwhile, @TokyoRichard tweets that we can expect heavy rain and thunder, but probably no flooding. Nothing too biblical, then. Thank goodness for that.

9:15am: Out on the Chiba coastline, @Darrell_Nelson tweets 'Getting a proper typhoon bashing...wind rattling in and rain getting heavier. This is only the tip of the typhoon, too'. We hope Darrell has an industrial strength brolly without him. Sounds like he's going to need it.

9.00am: News from Fukuoka again, where David Evans writes to say that it's a bit cloudy, but 'definitely no typhoon hitting Fukuoka.' He does point out, however, that his colleagues at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Beppu, on the east coast of Kyushu, have had work postponed or cancelled (first and second periods, incase any students are reading!).

ANN News is reporting that Typhoon Ma-on has indeed left Kyushu relatively unscathed, and is now closing in on Shikoku. As the image below shows, Shikoku and the Kinki region can expect 800mm of rain today, while the capital and the prefectures surrounding may see 250mm of rain.

6.15am: As anyone in Tokyo can see this morning, the edges of Ma-on are with us. We've got heavy rain, and strong gusts. However, reports say that the slow-moving typhoon has actually weakened, and will make landfall as a category two hurricane (wind speeds 154–177kmph).

Monday, July 18

5.30pm: Two stunning pictures of Typhoon Ma-on were tweeted to us by @ebtokyo. The images, pasted below, show the typhoon as it toys with Izu. Perhaps someone ought to tell the couple in the second picture that their accommodation may not pass muster...

4.50pm: The Mainichi Daily is reporting that at midday today Typhoon Ma-on passed Minami-Daito island, Okinawa Prefecture, heading north at 25 kilometres per hour. The eye of the storm passed within 300km of the island.

Elsewhere, we've been sent a link to a YouTube video showing huge waves lashing the port on Miyake-Jima island, approximately 180km south of Tokyo. The video was shot earlier today.

4.00pm: @keikoayabe has sent us a link to a useful Japanese website called Digital Typhoon, which is monitoring the situation in a more scientific way than we could ever manage, in both English and Japanese. We have to admit that our methods are more in line with @Maethelwine, who tweets from Hiroshima to say that he's 'drinking a pitcher of Hurricanes and hoping I get the day off tomorrow.'

3.30pm: Our editor recalls being at the centre of a typhoon as it made landfall in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture, four years ago. 'I remember being at the town station when they announced that the trains had stopped. I ducked into a taxi and asked him to take me to a cheap hotel. Arriving somewhere fairly tatty, it turned out I was the only guest and that the hotel staff had been dismissed for the night. The concierge checked me in hurriedly, apologizing, saying that he was going to make a run for it while he still could. As he left, he told me the hotel was susceptible to power cuts during typhoons. That was at 3pm.

'The typhoon hit the town at 4pm, pitching the bay into an eerie darkness and sending horrendous train-like winds through the hotel corridors, rattling every window until it sounded like they might fall out. Inevitably, the power failed. I was left sitting on my bed, alone in the hotel, watching the battery drain on my laptop – my only source of light. By 5.30pm, the room was black and the typhoon was screeching. It stayed that way until the sun came up the next morning. One of the freakiest experiences of my life.'

3.15pm: Dave Borgeson, an English teacher based in Fukuoka, says 'clouds are moving pretty quickly. Lots of "now you see it, now you don't" with the sky.'

3.05pm: Both @TristanScholze and @Scoholic tell us that gusty winds have started hitting Fukuoka. Stephen Case has also been back in touch to say the wind is picking up quite strongly now in Kitakyushu. If you're in the north of Kyushu, now's the time to be breaking out the surf boards, then (joke).

2.45pm: A message from @TristanScholze, based in Fukuoka City, to say that 'breezes are starting up – just a bit'. @GordonLuster says the wind has picked up now in Hiroshima, too. According to the latest reports from the JMA, with the exception of Aomori Prefecture and Hokkaido, the whole of the country could experience winds of 50 knots (58mph) over the next 72 hours.

1.20pm: Stephen Case, living down in Kitakyushu, drops us a line to say that today is 'the nicest day we've had all week. Cool with a good breeze.' So very little signs of Ma-on's destructiveness their then. Further north in Hiroshima, however, @GordonLuster reports 'a light drizzle but no wind yet'.

An interesting factoid from a reader in Oita Prefecture, however. According to Christopher Jack, 'apparently, if you find a snake in a tree, it's a good indicator of a typhoon coming.' So keep your eyes peeled for tree-bound reptiles, then.

1.00pm: Understandably, fears now surround the capacity of stricken Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant to withstand a typhoon as strong as Ma-on. TEPCO were reporting