I'm sure I mentioned this last year on here and its a little off the topic at hand but what difference in the approach Japan takes towards typhoons and the approach we take. I've riden out two over there when i was working and they don't even know what an evacuation is. The first one we were surfing 2 hours before it hit cuz the waves were good, then went out to dinner, and then went home and rode it out. The second one I worked all day, rushed to finish up because they kept telling me in broken english "typhoon soon coming", drove home at 6pm with the guy I work for as the wind was practically blowing us off the road. We went to his house, shut the panels, showered up, and went out for dinner right in the middle of this thing hitting us head on. Could you imagine that approach in the US? These storms weren't that strong though...probably only Category ones.