TYPHOON BUTTERFLY

While we're still reeling from hurricane Katrina's lasting effects, a supertyphoon is lashing east Asia. Typhoon Nabi, Korean for "butterfly," has teetered between Cat 4 and 5 power, and is beating down on Japan on its way to South Korea and China. So far Nabi has killed a few people and flooded towns up and down the Japanese archipelago from Kyushu to Tokyo. Dozens are missing, and it will take a while to sort out the full extent of the damage to property and infrastructure. Since Japan is a series of islands, the storm has severed transit and some communication links from the capital to the more affected parts of the country.

Japan is a nation so used to disaster that much of its entertainment centers on movies, TV shows and stories about gigantic monsters stomping all over their largest cities. I dare say that they'll get through Nabi without all the finger-pointing, back-stabbing and outright malfeasance that we've witnessed in the past week.

MORE: Blogger Francis Turner lives in Japan and is riding out typhoon Nabi.