(2010.6.20) Disaster Prevention Workshop ~Staying in an Emergency Shelter in Japan~
Once again packed into a very lazy photo summary!
The day started off with super humid weather and overcast skies. We were worried about whether or not we'd be able to use the earthquake simulator (the weird truck thing to the left), because it's not available for use if it's raining, but very luckily it didn't rain at all!!
Getting the "emergency shelter" - Tojo Elementary School, which is designated as a shelter in case of an emergency - ready for the day. I spent almost three full days the week before just printing and laminating the multilingual signs (like the ones attached to the table).
Listening to a short briefing before riding the machine.
Getting shaken all over the place!
Somehow I got sucked into riding it too o_O It was 20x worse than it was at Sea Festa - probably because this time around, there were only 3 of us riding at once, and so there wasn't enough people to kinda weigh the machine down.
Also, we had some volunteers from the Women's Firefighter Squad come and check everyone's homework - to bring a maximum of 10 things that they felt were the most important to have in case of an emergency. Some of the students said that they would be ok as long as they had their wallet and cell phone! *shock*
Testing out what it's like to sleep at an emergency shelter...
border="0" alt="Photobucket">
Portable sleeping bags!! Made out of aluminum sheet??? It doesn't look particularly comfortable, but apparently it's amazingly warm and would probably be awesome in the winter?
It wouldn't be an event in Japan without long, boring speeches. Everyone was very good and at least pretended to be listening?
Probably the most exciting part of the event for me - making the emergency rations! Ours made enough for 50 people. It comes in a giant box with EVERYTHING you would need - the food (dried), plastic trays, chopsticks, a cutter to open the bag, a rice scooper for mixing...etc etc.
All you need is water (hot or cold, although that affects how long it takes for the food to "cook")! Just pour it in, let the rice sit...and then voila! It's all done.
Passing out rations~.
Taste testing. It was surprisingly edible...maybe even decently good?
Overall I'd say the event was pretty successful. Everything went smoothly and we teamed up with not only another office (the Disaster Prevention Division) of the City Hall, but also the school itself, the Women's Firefighter Squad, and the Fire and Police Departments. I just wish that more foreigner people had attended! I guess no one thinks that it's important enough, or that it's necessary to have such an event?? I donno. Either way, we're hoping to do this event again sometime in the future!
The day started off with super humid weather and overcast skies. We were worried about whether or not we'd be able to use the earthquake simulator (the weird truck thing to the left), because it's not available for use if it's raining, but very luckily it didn't rain at all!!
Getting the "emergency shelter" - Tojo Elementary School, which is designated as a shelter in case of an emergency - ready for the day. I spent almost three full days the week before just printing and laminating the multilingual signs (like the ones attached to the table).
Listening to a short briefing before riding the machine.
Getting shaken all over the place!
Somehow I got sucked into riding it too o_O It was 20x worse than it was at Sea Festa - probably because this time around, there were only 3 of us riding at once, and so there wasn't enough people to kinda weigh the machine down.
Also, we had some volunteers from the Women's Firefighter Squad come and check everyone's homework - to bring a maximum of 10 things that they felt were the most important to have in case of an emergency. Some of the students said that they would be ok as long as they had their wallet and cell phone! *shock*
Testing out what it's like to sleep at an emergency shelter...
border="0" alt="Photobucket">
Portable sleeping bags!! Made out of aluminum sheet??? It doesn't look particularly comfortable, but apparently it's amazingly warm and would probably be awesome in the winter?
It wouldn't be an event in Japan without long, boring speeches. Everyone was very good and at least pretended to be listening?
Probably the most exciting part of the event for me - making the emergency rations! Ours made enough for 50 people. It comes in a giant box with EVERYTHING you would need - the food (dried), plastic trays, chopsticks, a cutter to open the bag, a rice scooper for mixing...etc etc.
All you need is water (hot or cold, although that affects how long it takes for the food to "cook")! Just pour it in, let the rice sit...and then voila! It's all done.
Passing out rations~.
Taste testing. It was surprisingly edible...maybe even decently good?
Overall I'd say the event was pretty successful. Everything went smoothly and we teamed up with not only another office (the Disaster Prevention Division) of the City Hall, but also the school itself, the Women's Firefighter Squad, and the Fire and Police Departments. I just wish that more foreigner people had attended! I guess no one thinks that it's important enough, or that it's necessary to have such an event?? I donno. Either way, we're hoping to do this event again sometime in the future!