Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Earthquake...minus the earthquake bit

This morning at school, we had an earthquake drill!

As if that wasn't exciting enough, we all got to wear our indoor shoes not only OUTSIDE, but to the dirtiest, dustiest part of the school grounds, the sports field behind the school (the designated evacuation area)!

I now feel like I've truly experienced Japan.*


* It was a nice break to the day. I also couldn't believe that 1,000 students could clear out of a building so fast - in less than 5 minutes. I was walking with a bunch of non-English-speaking Japanese teachers, and they taught me the word for earthquake (which I already actually knew), jishin, and asked me if we had earthquakes in Canada (yes in some parts of the country, but none so big that we EVER have earthquake drills). Then, for some odd reason, they followed up the earthquake drill with a 20-minute awards ceremony for students who had recently won honours in karate, track and field, broadcasting, and handball. All under the bright, blazing sun. In my indoor shoes, outdoors. Crazy.

5 comments:

strasmark said...

Just for fun, and because I like commenting on blogs (I know what joy it brings people, after all, if only because I've heard about it) I'm going to ask: what is the difference between indoor and outdoor shoe? How do they regulate shoe usage?

julie said...

Ugh. I started writing a comment in reply, but I see it is getting very long, and I might have to try to make a post on the topic instead. Which means I now need to take pictures of students' indoor and outdoor shoes. Look what you've started...

Anonymous said...

Yes, I'm curious too. Do the indoor shoes now need to be disinfected?

Eriotto said...

I've had two Japanese people flip out on me for wearing shoes when I should have taken them off. One of them was running toward me, waving one arm around, pointing at my feet with the other, and yelling in Japanese. After I complied, she turned back into Robo-Japanese-Service-Person. I love Japan.

Anonymous said...

I have been busy searching the internet for the past couple days after I received my JET placement. I am headed to Gifukita Senior High this year and I'm so excited. I'm also very excited to find the blog of someone there right now.

Please contact me. I would love to chat with you and get some more information.

Email me at reiner.danielle @ gmail.com (Get rid of the spaces, of course)