In a previous post, I promised quaintcal (kalyanichakatta.blogspot.com) that I’d report on the Osaka moon, since I was so sad to leave behind the sharp, bigger than life, brighter than diamonds moon of Silicon Valley.

Until tonight, though, I hadn’t seen it once.

The weather goes from more to less to more muggy, until you don’t know whether you’re hot or cold, wet or dry. Everything is wilted and slightly damp on an ongoing basis—paper, shirts, hair, shoes. And the sky is no exception. I’ve only seen mushy gray cloud cover, day and night, since I arrived.

Tonight, though, perhaps in the aftermath of the typhoon (the death toll is up to 20 now), the clouds were bright white cotton speeding across a deep velvet blue sky, and the half moon tinged them in an orange gold halo that guided me home from the monorail station. Just as I arrived home, the moon popped out, as the clouds blew aside for a moment.

The iPhone is clearly not the best camera for the moon, but here is its best attempt. To help it a little and conjure the mood of this sleepy Osaka suburb, I added a recording of the sounds of summer that serenade us every night.