Kakinoki James

Today was pretty cold. It snowed a little before and just after lunch. That's the first time I've seen snow during the daytime this winter. I saw a little Saturday night.

Anyways, during the freetime period after lunch, the school I was at today had a fire drill. So, of course that means everyone has to quickly go outside. I though everyone would rush to the front door area to get their outside shoes before going outside, but they used a back exit and wore their inside shoes (plastic/rubber slippers) outside. Nobody had a jacket on, just their school uniforms. Keep in mind that for the girls this means a knee high skirt. Most of the teacher wore no coat as well. I wore a t-shirt and light wool sweater. As you can imagine, everyone was pretty cold.

In Japan, a fire drill isn't just running outside so the school administration can see how long it takes. Nooo, in Japan a fire drill is also a learning time. First, everyone lined up in rows in the school yard while the fire department. Granted, this is Kakinoki so it didn't take long. After that the principal spoke to the students for a while. He seems annoyed about something, so his speech dragged on for a while. Then someone from the fire department spoke for a while. Then a teacher and a student from each grade took turns spraying water from a long water hose that had been dragged out of the school. Then the firemen took out a big metal pan (about 3 feet long and wide) and some gas or some other flammable liquid and made a nice big fire in the pan. Then a teacher and a student from each grade took turns using a fire extinguisher to put out the flames. Of course the firemen had to make a new fire for each person. The firemen didn't seem to be in much of a hurry. They had coats after all. Everyone else just stood and shivered. Some of the girls held on to each other to share body heat. After the last fire was put out some fireman spoke a little more. Finally it was over. I was probably the only one that bothered to go grab my outdoor shoes, so I was able to go back inside pretty fast. The poor students had to stay outside longer because they had to wipe their slippers off before going back inside.