On-camera reactions range from “yabai” to “seriously yabai.”
tornado
A volcanic eruption is terrifying on its own, but we just learned that, even more terrifyingly, the avalanche of hot rocks, ash, and gas that volcanoes spew can spawn giant tornado-like twisters.
This was caught on video after a pyroclastic flow from Mount Sinabung, a volcano in Indonesia that’s recently started spewing again after more than 400 years of dormancy.
What a week, eh? Hayao Miyazaki’s retirement was announced, the creator of Attack on Titan has annoyed fans with his “poor” drawings, a massive boulder nearly smashed a car, and, worst of all, a freaking tornado ripped up a chunk of Japan! We sure could use some good, light-hearted news.
Well, how about this story of a man who donated 100,000 yen (US$1,000) to one of the elementary schools ravaged by the tornado…in one of the most unusual ways ever!
At around 2 p.m. on Monday, September 2, a rare sight filled the skies of Tokyo’s neighbour to the north, Saitama Prefecture. From a layer of thick, dark cloud, a twisting grey finger reached down and made contact with the city itself and the word tatsumaki could be heard all around: there was a tornado in the city.
The twister tore through some 14 kilometres of the prefecture within just a few minutes, taking out power lines, ripping the roofs from a number of houses and leaving as many as 33,000 residences across the Kanto region without power. Soon after, dozens of videos appeared online showing the tornado rumbling across the land.
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