do you like typhoons?

It's the question I've been asked all day today. And, it's kinda weird that students are all saying yes... Aren't potentially-dangerous natural weather phenomenons supposed to be feared rather than liked? 

Despite the slight anxiousness I'm having about my very first typhoon experience, I can kinda understand where they're coming from. It's kinda like a snow day, where it's an excuse for everyone to not have to go to school. It's things like this that make me wish sometimes that I didn't grow up in a city that only experienced relatively mild weather.

So, if it's an unplanned day of no school, shouldn't I be more excited? Well, yeah, I would, if a "no school day" actually meant not going to school. Actually in my first year back, one of my teachers was telling me about the procedures for a typhoon - essentially a siren will sound warning everyone to stay inside their homes for safety reasons.With torrential rain and winds reaching more than 70 metres per second, people young and old alike are urged to stay home and not go to school, and the same thing is supposed to be for businesses as well. 

But for teachers, rather than stay home and you know, be safe, they're expected to report to school. For most people, that involves commuting in their car up to an hour or so... in the middle of typhoon weather. For me at the time, it meant that the moment I heard the typhoon siren, I was supposed to get on my bike and ride 30 minutes through ridiculously heavy rain, winds that are more than double the top speed of my kei-car to come to school and sit at my desk while my students that I was supposed to teach that day are all staying at home. 

I was talking about this to one of my teachers, and they were like "Yeah, teachers come to school in typhoons." seemingly nonchalant and not at all shocked that one's job stipulates commuting to school in the middle of weather so strong the national weather bureau is recommending people to stay indoors... What the hell, right?