Today was FUN.
I had the normal morning rush to Ochanomizu in the morning, which involved disembarking at Yotsuya by accident and having to catch the next train (duuuurrrrr....).
Classes began at nine (I made it with time to spare, fear not!) and I had my usual 3 hours of Japanese babble and reading exercises. We talked about how when tryptophan (トリプトファン) combines with vitamin B6, it changes to serotonin (セロトニン); the secretion of which acts as a neurotransmitter...in Japanese, believe it or not. （牛製品に含まれるトリプトファンはビタミンB６と結合して、脳の覚醒を促すセロトニンに変化すること。授業のトピックは眠気ましに効く食べ物。かなり面白かった。）
Lesson over, I stumbled into my friend Kohei, who treated me to lunch at Burger King (of all places, haha!). It was nice to chat and help him with his English homework.
Next up, an experience in disaster prevention at a special centre near Tokyo's Sky Tree. Like a total noob, I had left my camera on my desk so I have no photos of today. (We were not allowed to take photos inside the actual centre but photos of the Sky Tree would have been good *sad face*.)
We began by watching a movie about an earthquake disaster with two fictional boys knowing how to handle the situation like pros. (I cried in the middle when their families' houses collapsed. Thank GOD おばあさん made it out of the rubble safely! Had me right on the edge of my seat!)
Lesson 1: 煙 (smoke) and how to deal with it in a building:
This involved running through a small maze of rooms whilst following the emergency exit signs. There were sensors inside the maze that would tell us if we had died during the task. In other words, if we were not crouched low enough, the sensors would detect that and it would show on a TV monitor. Entering the maze seemed okay. It was light, the fake smoke was vanilla-scented....I pressed my handkerchief to my face and ran in a crouched position, following the wall with my right hand. EEEEP! It suddenly went pitch black. All the lights failed including the emergency exit lights so we had to feel our way out by tracing the wall with our hands. Having emerged, we found only one of our group to be 'dead' (and it wasn't me! I guess being a short-arse helps sometimes.)
Lesson 2: 震度７の地震 (earthquakes at magnitude 7; the strongest) and how to deal with them:
This was scary. In small groups we entered this small room with various items of furniture including a dining table, boiler, chair, dresser etc...
Within seconds the simulation began and the room started to shake quite violently. As instructed beforehand, we dived under the dining table, seizing a table leg each and waited for the room to stop rocking and for the furniture to stop falling over. Quake over, we switched off the boiler and held the door of the room open with a chair. MADNESS! But really, really fun nevertheless.
Lesson 3: 消火 (extinguishing fires):
This was very valuable. I have never before been able to get a hands-on experience of using a 消火器 (fire extinguisher). We had a quick run-through of the 3 steps it took to use a fire extinguisher;
- pull the pin on top
- release hose and take aim
- squeeze the trigger
- PARTAY!
...and then we were able to try it out with real fire extinguishers with a fire simulation. We started by yelling: "火事だ！" and then got busy with the the hoses.
Lesson 4: 救急法 (first-aid)
I had never been taught this either! We entered a room full of dummies and had a lesson in how to perform 心肺蘇生法 (CPR) and how to use an AED (Automated External Defibrillator). 肝要な知識！！！
PHEW! What a daaay. たくさん勉強になった。
Side note: after returning home, I made the most AMAZING food ever, that I shall 絶対に cook for my "guest" next time he visits. (You are gonna love it! Boo yah!)
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