Fire Drill!

On Thursday of last week, I finally got organized enough to ask the Assistant Principal about the class we would be teaching together on the following Monday.

“Manabe sensei, do we team teach together on Monday?”

“Mmm, maybe, but, on Monday there is a fire drill, so unless the typhoon comes, we will not have class.”

I decided to prepare as if there was going to be class, not just because of a potential rain day, but in a school where I am unlikely to understand if I change is made, it is better to prepared for a number of different contingencies. Also, from July to around October, there is a typhoon about once a week that may or may not really turn into anything more than a rainy day. However, every Japanese person acts like every typhoon will likely bring about the end of the world. I digress.

Monday was a beautiful day, so I was ready to participate in the fire drill. I assumed that some kind of bell or alarm would ring, and that we’d all pile outside for a few minutes just like we always did in America. I approached one of the teachers and asked if there was anything I could do to help.

“No, no, please just enjoy.”

This is a tricky phrase here in Japan. It can mean anything from, “I don’t need your help,” to, “your relative incompetence serves no purpose in this particular situation,” to, “I don’t want your fucking help you asshole,” to, finally, “please enjoy the activity.”

I walked outside and started to realize that this was NOTHING like the fire drills we had back home. There was some kind of large truck emblazoned with the city’s logo parked directly in our courtyard, and there were multiple people in uniform that I assumed were from the fire department.

The students and teachers all walked out to the large field adjacent to the school, and a speech was made by one of the fire department personnel.

During the speech, one of the JTE’s asked me, “do you have something like this in America?”

I said that we had days where all the students and teachers briefly left the building to practice in case there was a fire, but it was nothing like this.

After the speech, students split into different groups and went to what I came to realize were different stations around the school.

I walked over to where the large truck was parked, and realized it wasn’t so much a large truck as a mobile earthquake simulator! There were steps leading into the large trailer of the truck where students sat down in a mock living room.  A technician outside pushed a button, and the trailer began pitching back and forth and up and down to simulate an earthquake! It was pretty awesome, and I really wanted to hop in and try it out, but it was cool that the students got to participate. It was something fun that they got to be a part of that the teachers didn’t.

Earthquake Truck!

I walked around to the other side of the school, and saw what looked like a giant covered fabric tube extending from the roof of the school to the ground. There were students standing on the roof, and they basically just jumped in and slid through the tube safely to the ground.

Just kicking it on the roof waiting for their turn...

Man, our fire drills back home suck! I want to slide off the roof through a giant covered slide!

Exit view

I walked over to the field and there was a member of the fire department giving a speech to the students. Though I couldn’t understand what he said, both the students and teachers were laughing and having a good time, and one of the teachers made the comment that he was a good speaker.

He lined up a few fire extinguishers, and a few of the students had the opportunity to grab a fire extinguisher, run up to a “fire” (a metal sign with a picture of fire on it), practice pulling the pin out of the fire extinguisher, and spraying the sign, which was weighted so that you had to hit it with a direct shot to knock it over.

It was like a carnival game! Two students would wait for the speaker to signal – which was essentially him yelling something in Japanese – and then they would yell, “fire” in English, run up to the sign, pull the pin, and spray the sign until they made it fall over.

Fire!!!

Heather and I talk a lot about how Japanese people, and especially children, are given more (or at least different) opportunities to be self sufficient than children in the United States. Heather works with pre-Kindergarten children that are expected to do simple tasks from cleaning up after themselves and putting their shoes on, to more complex and “unsafe” tasks like sharing in cooking duties, and actually being able to use sharp objects such as real scissors rather than the unconscionably shitty safety scissors we all struggled with as children.

Instead of just having children walk out the door if there a fire, or “duck and cover” if there’s an earthquake, they put them in safe, simulated situations that allow them to practice using techniques, and then if at all possible, put them directly into a situation where they can practice these techniques (aka fire chutes, experiencing at least a semblance of an earthquake, and learning how to use a fire extinguisher) to prepare them to respond accordingly if a situation actually happens.

They don’t tell the kids to be heroes. I asked a teacher about it and she said that it was stressed over and over that the first thing to do would be to find a safe space or to leave a burning building, but if it was necessary, they were taught proper ways to respond.

I LOVE this attitude. I feel like in America we baby kids from the time they’re, well, babies, until they’re about 20 years old. They never have to learn to be self-sufficient. Teach kids how to cook and use sharp objects. Give them opportunities to fail in a controlled situation rather than just expecting them to fail and never giving them an opportunity to try.

There I am on my soapbox again, but the point is, Japanese fire drills are awesome!!!!!