Fire Drill

The weekend was rather uneventful. Drinking, singing, carousing with real Russians, Japanese, and English speakers. Some studying, shopping (finally a coffee maker and a DVD player, a godsend). But Monday contained the highlight of the month, probably. Ok, relax, sit back, grab a beer, think back to high school. Remember the fire drills, when the alarm would annoyingly go off, (either the fire department would pull it, or a prank, or someone trying to get out of class) (which in reality was a relief for most of us, got out of class etc., and being a teacher now, I can still say that proudly, even though its an immense headache if you’re taking a test or something to reschedule it, anyway, that’s a tangent). So, what would happen? Well, we’d all file out of the nearest exit, congregate outside for a little while, chat and what not, until the fire marshall came, declared that it had taken us 47 minutes to all leave the building and we’d all dutifully go right back in and resume the daily routine of school life, grateful for the tiny break away. I’d say that’s a pretty fair assessment of everyone’s experience, no? Ok, so last week I was told that this Monday there would be an “evacuation drill” here at school (the principal was quite excited by that word, evacuation, which he learned just for the occasion of telling me). So, with all my assumptions in place but cautiously aware that this is, after all, Japan, I went into Monday with modest expectations but ready for anything. And so it came…

When I showed up at 8:30, there were some fire engines and other official looking vehicles in the parking lot. The Hakui firemen were setting up a small tented area for some reason. So there was already a lot of activity and we were told to park somewhere far out back, on the lawn. Meanwhile, the students and the teachers were rehearsing for the annual sports festival (which is a grand big thing in itself, basically it is a full day of various sport activities, such as tug of war, etc. where the students and teachers compete, and the parents and community watches; it’s a big deal, it’s next week, I’ll write more later.) So, they were practicising. At around 9:30, they told me the drill would begin at 10:00. So, at ten, I was kind of hanging out by the front doors, waiting for my cues. So the kids all start running out, from various exits and I follow the gym teacher. Naturally, it turned out I was the last one to leave the building. Anyway, we all gathered by the baseball diamond and relaxed for a while. Everything was going as expected, until I noticed the overturned car in the parking lot. Yeah, they put a car on its side, because without this an earthquake simulation simply would not be authentic. Ok, I thought, I can deal with that. But, then I noticed, parked not too far away on the grass, a giant red rescue helicopter? Yes, a helicopter. Ok. Moving forward. Apparently they had instructed a few students and a teacher to stay behind in the building somewhere to have them be mock rescued. So, all these vehicles pull in and it starts to resemble a general disaster area. By the way, the tent was for all these higher-ups, which I guess included the chief of the fire department and some others. The head of the Board of Education was there as well. So all this activity is going on. A bunch of firemen go into the building and retrieve some students and lead them out, all authentic like, leaning on their shoulders and everything. Then, by the small river which runs along the school, a van pulls up, and out come – divers, all in their gear, all set to do a river rescue operation. Then put on their fins and dove in and dragged some guy out (I’m not really sure when he got in there), put him on a stretcher and into an ambulance. Then went back in to get another guy, who was pulled up on a stretcher that was suspended from a fire engine’s ladder. Ok, pretty cool. Then the helicopter starts to go, takes off and maneuvers itself on top of the school and a guy on a rope jumps out, lowers himself to the roof and picks up a student, gets lifted back onto the chopper and the chopper lands again on the field, where an ambulance pulls up and the guy gets transferred and the ambulance speeds away. OK, wonderful. The whole thing finished up with two fire trucks, with ladders extended, pouring massive amounts of water onto and into the school (I hope the windows were at least closed). Wow, it tool like one hour for the entire thing and it was pretty damn interesting to watch. At the end, all the rescue workers and what not lined up and were inspected by the boss, who then made a speech for like fifteen minutes. (In Japan, all speeches are at least that long, except of course mine; it takes an extremely long time to say extremely little – reference the “Lost in Translation” scene where Bill Murray is filming the whiskey commercial and direct translation takes place between him and the director and 2 minutes of speech is translated as “Please look to your left.”) After that, everyone just kind of went back into the building, the tent was disassembled, and normal routine life resumed, and of course, I had to resume along with it…Interesting little eventful morning.

Ok. School is actually starting this week, so pretty soon, there’ll be something here that’s actually somewhat relevant to a large reason of why I’m here. In the meanwhile, I’m planning my self-introduction lessons, in which I yet again talk about myself and show pictures and stuff. (Yes, my students will see many of you in your finest glory). Ok, that’s it for now. Take care.
P.S. In Japan, the standard pregnancy is considered to be 10 months, 10 days long. I was absolutely shocked by this fact and sat awestruck for like 15 minutes, pondering the whole nine month thing that has been bred into my since my own premature appearance into this world. Of course, no one at the office was the least bit concerned and went about their business; for them its 10 months, 10 days, period, no debate or nothing. Ponder that amongst yourselves.