Hundreds of thousands of people evacuated as heavy rain hits wide areas of Japan

Wow, finally something on the record rainfall. Just saw some areas in Kochi have had up 1200mm of rain!?

Hope everyone stays safe. Another holiday for me though I'm starting to get cabin fever.

Stay safe, why is that idiot walking down by the river? All it would take is a large log or something... Sometimes I think people don't think.

Natural disasters are way of life in Japan. They attack us every year. Our characteristic as Japanese might have been acquired through living in such a disaster prone country. We became patient. It takes "gaman" to live in Japan.

Let's hope everyone stays safe.

Be safe!

That's rough guys, hope everybody is OK. I would hate to see what would happen in Tokyo with that much rain.

This years rainfall is absurd and getting worse every year. I hope Arashiyama doesnt get a flood again like last year. People should stay away from rivers, stay inside as much as possible and stay dry.

Stay safe, people, patient or not. My phone alarm has been driving me batty these past couple of days, but not a lot you can do. Definitely the most rain I’ve seen here in a while.

Natural disasters are way of life in Japan. They attack us every year. Our characteristic as Japanese might have been acquired through living in such a disaster prone country. We became patient. It takes "gaman" to live in Japan. Forget about misfortunes "shikataganai."

No, I think millenia of self imposed isolationism has forged the Japanese character. If your hypothesis is indeed true then you would share the same characteristics as cultures from other parts of the world that are prone to frequent natural disasters and you would therefore have no problems assimilating with them. We all know this is not true so I guess that pokes a rather large hole in that theory.

My phone alarm has been driving me batty these past couple of days, but not a lot you can do

On android at least, you can disable it. Plenty of other phones going off around me with out mine adding to cacophony.

Second straight day of school closures in the area, and during final exams for a lot of schools too. One more spanner in the works.

FWIW the best smartphone app from my experience for weather, rain radar, EQ , keiho alerts etc is : WNI. ウェザーニュース

Wow!! I've visited Kyoto many times and walked across that bridge. I've never seen that much water in the river!! Stay safe, everyone!

Be safe everyone!

Stupid me decided to bike around Shikoku in the rainy season and yesterday I was pummeled by rain for 9 hours, eventually leading to a nasty fall and road rash. Maybe today will be better.

Im hoping things let up soon! Any trip to Kyoto would be amiss to not include a lovely stroll along the banks of the Kamo River.

We got a prepare to evacuate alert yesterday morning. Rain started coming in last night, we have pans and bowls all over the room. The rain is relentless and shows no sign of stopping until next week.

Sincere thanks to the many workers I've watched here in Kobe (and I know are doing the same thing in other areas) out in the muck of this deluge while tending to the many serious transportation, drainage, electrical and other problems. Stay safe. You provide services that are absolutely essential. Respect!

Fukuoka- Torrential rains massive flooding everywhere.

Being sent home early from work. Be safe everyone.

The news is full of alerts and warnings and red areas indicating danger!

Meanwhile, the millions of workers in Japanare still expected to go into work during ‘historic’ record breaking levels of rain....

This is really sad, i used to live and work in inagawa. There was a lot of construction going on because of the new Kobe highway there. I can pretty much guarantee that the workers were told to continue working even with the bad conditions, if the city council is anything like the board of education they often ignore warnings and take a pig headed approach. When i was working there a typhoon warning was called, all the children were sent home and the teachers were expected to remain at school, when i raised the issue everyone just ignored eveidently i was the only one who went home. Utterly ridiculous, i am sure this tragedy could have been avoided.

Schopenhauer: "Our characteristic as Japanese might have been acquired through living in such a disaster prone country. We became patient. It takes "gaman" to live in Japan."

Wrong. Lots of areas around the world suffer natural disasters, and in those cases people often work together and help one another. And there are those who do not, same as in Japan.

Couldn't stand staying in the house any longer and went to downtown Kobe for a couple of hours. Wait for trains both ways. No expresses, only locals. All the shops were open w/only a fraction of the usual crowds. Gobsmacking rain continues--by my count we've at 33 straight hours, most of it torrential. The rivers I saw from the train were simply insane. More risk prone areas, god help them.

I have to say that is a great photo. The lady in the pastel blue kimono really stands out. Well done to the photographer!

It's been constant here in Yamaguchi. A lot more intense than usual for this time of the year.

Went for a brief walk during an ever briefer lull in the rain before and took a look at the Inagawa river near Itami airport from the top of the levee. All the sports fields along the river are, well, under it. On the far bank it looked like a group of Darwin Award candidates were skirting quite close to the water's edge. Hope they're ok.

And all of the JTers affected by the rain as well.

I just flew out of Itami. I thought my flight might get canceled.

No, I think millenia of self imposed isolationism has forged the Japanese character. If your hypothesis is indeed true then you would share the same characteristics as cultures from other parts of the world that are prone to frequent natural disasters and you would therefore have no problems assimilating with them. We all know this is not true so I guess that pokes a rather large hole in that theory.

First of all, Japanese isolationism was under the Tokugawa shogunate, so it lasted more or less 200 years, certainly not millenia.

Also I can't see why sharing the same characteritics as another culture means having no problems assimilating, there can be problems in assimilation due to historical reasons for example, or specific cultural points which are not shared.

Finally, just because different populations react differently to a certain situation doesn't mean that situation has no effect on them. The effect of climate on a culture's character is absolutely real, but it doesn't necessary work in the same way in different contexts. The japanese character has been forged by many different factors and it does seem reasonable to assume that something as important as frequent natural disasters is an important factor.

Do you remember silencing my theory that the amount of water has increased with global warming? Please see my Facebook post for a new and successful attempt to argue that again!!

Rainy is season coming to Japan. It is raining everyday. There is heavy rain in the Kansai region. I was worried because many people pass away from disasters. Some were injured and others died in the heavy rain. I was very shocked to watch this news. The Japan Meteorological agency said there will be heavy rain on Friday. I hope that nobody dies. They should evacuate because heavy rain.

Since the time of the earthquake in Osaka, bad luck has continued in the Kansai area. I am scared because some people have died. I think that tourists are decreasing due to all the earthquakes and floods. I am sad because Kyoto is a very big tourist destination in Japan. Nature is ruining the wonderful city of Kyoto. It will be inconvenient for residents affected by transportation issues. What is more scary than anything is landslides. It is not good to ignore these problems. My hometown also has floods. I pray that the rain will not continue to fall.