Super Typhoon Bavi nears Japan’s Okinawa, flights axed and noodle shelves emptied

A large and powerful typhoon approached a remote chain of islands in Japan’s southwest on Friday, prompting authorities to warn of violent winds, torrential rain, landslides and flooding in what could be the region’s most destructive storm in years.Super Typhoon Bavi is expected to pass very close to Japan’s Sakishima Islands, a remote island chain that is part of Okinawa prefecture, early on ‌Saturday morning, according to meteorological authorities.Maximum sustained winds were topping out at 162km/h (100mph), and local residents on Ishigaki, one of the islands in the chain, were taping up windows and draping windproof nets across homes and shops.