bousai taiken

Title of blog post comes means basically disaster prevention personal experience. This was what I had signed up for today at the start of the month.

But first couple pictures from the odaiba marathon.

 Greeting the little girl.

 Was hard to NOT smile big time with her there shouting "ganbare"'s :D

Time would be 3pm so I had some time before that to kill. I decided that I would go one more time for my favourite park Yoyogi. Day was pretty with blue sky and warm temperatures. Finnish summer might have hotter days but not many!

 I did my usual thing and stepping out from Shibuya headed there on foot. Above is piece of wall at the Shibuya station. Been there n+1 times but never noticed that before.

 The oh so familiar footpath. Finally trees are red in Tokyo as well!

 There's one of the concert venues I went in last year.

 Going onward found that there was yet another ad-hoc market going on. Lots and lots of food items available. Too bad I had already bought breakfast as there were some interesting looking meals available. And maybe good thing my bags are getting full or I would have been tempted to buy some for souvenirs :D

 There was also this cute little fellow. Let me scratch him/her as well. Maybe hoped I too had snack :D

 There was also area where were some "taiken"'s(persona experience) related to how it's being with disability like missing leg. There were bunch of kids doing "one legged football" where they were moving around with walking sticks jumping on one foot and using same foot for kicking the ball. Fun looking thing.

 Arrived to the park. And noticed there was some heavy activity here too! Looking at the signposts I gathered it was disaster safety festival thingie for this year so fire department was there and there was chance to try earthquakes, smoky areas, survival style tent camping etc. If I hadn't signed up for the bousai taiken this would have given me chance to experience the earthquake as well.

I also noticed unusually large number of runners so maybe some sort of running event was going on. There were also several pairs running with their hands connected by rope. One had "guide" and one had "blind" written on back. Not sure if blind was really blind or was this some sort of competition form or yet another taiken.

This is one reason I like Japan. You can set out from your room, not have any particular plans and have fairly good chance of running into SOMETHING happening. Hard to get bored here.

At the small lake/fountain I so like.

 Nice red on that tree.

 You could actually feel yourself get splashed by water. At this distance! Albeit not completely(good thing too :D) but there was definite feel of water hitting your face.

I settled here for breakfast and reading bit of manga.

 Little rainbow was even visible.

 Pretty leaves.

 It was very sunny, very hot day. So far best day this year for me at the Yoyogi park.

Unsurprisingly with this good weather and this being Sunday the park was positively crowded. Especially with the festival going on. Lots of runners, lots of bikers, one group with little girls in gourgeous kimonos(late shichi-go-san celebration?). Also bunch of younger folk doing group dance trainings, people playing various instruments, stretching exercise group. Lots of people doing lots of different activities.

From the park I then proceeded to the nearby Takeshita road for one last walk through it. Doubtful I'll come this way again on this trip again.

That's at the start. The street was positively packed. You can't make much of a speed on that. It's at the same time interesting and frustrating experience. Also you need to be careful least person ahead you suddenly stop causing you to hit him/her(more likely her seeing this street has mostly fashion stores).

After this I proceeded to Ikebukuro. Wanted to be well in time in case my memory of route to the building was faulty. It wasn't so I then proceeded to find myself spot to wait and found little playground where was bench I could sit and read a bit. During this I was suddenly approached by Chinese exchange student out of all things who started chatting. At first English but then when it came up he's studying here in Japanese I switched to Japanese so was bit unreal feeling with Finnish and Chinese there talking in Japanese :D

Not even short school for him. He's been here for 3 years now.

After that I went to the taiken place. At first there were 6 kids(3-13 year old age group) and 6 adults(me included) but some late joiners joined in later. Very popular for adult+kid(s) groups it seems. The course consisted of 4 parts. First we watched animated film that covered some basics for survival in case of big earthquake. After this we proceeded to fire extinquish section where after getting explained basics of how the fire extinquish tools work and how to operate them we proceeded to try them out. Not on real fire but instead goal was to shoot the fire at monitor with fire video going on. Oh and when fire came we were to turn toward rest(at same time 4 were doing this) and yell "kaji da!" which means basically "fire!". Why the shout? Uhhuh. Then pull the pin, pull hose free and point at the fire and push the lever.

After all had had hand at trying the item they then had little game for kids. They were to shout "kaji da!" as loud as they could(one by one) with decibels measured. Days high had been 104 so far but one did manage to break it to 105. And kids even received some sort of paper(likely with their result). Haha cute one.

Next up was smokey room. In groups of 6(I was with group of father+2 son and father+daughter) we proceeded through smokey apartment. There were some locked doors and we had to go through pathway to exit. And keep our height at max 120cm. That was pretty tough for me since I had to make myself more than 33% lower. Kids had it easy! They needed hardly any kneeling down. And they actually measure this so if you raise yourself too high they get beep and then say via mices "lower!".

Our group was the guinea pigs who did it first. We were also the slowest as we took wrong turn at one point and hit to locked door so had to back away. But no "beeps"!

After this we got to the part I had looked forward. Earthquake! This was done in groups of 4 starting with sitting at table and once signal comes dive below table and hang on. First was 2 adults+2 kids. They got scale 5(japanese scale that goes from 1-7) earthquake. Signal to head under table was there being warning from tv of distant quake so you had some time to dive in before it starts to shake.

Next group was 4 adults and they got the full 7 and it sure looked shaky. And signal to head under table was it starting to shake for real. No pre-emptive warning and with room shaking getting under table before the BIG shake was harder than when tv provided the warning.

I was alas with adult+2 kids so we got the 5 level one. Not sure if I could stay upright on that but wouldn't like to try that with tables or anything nearby in case I fall.

Once all had got a try they then gave second chances as director asked if I would like to try again. Got with 2 other men + 1 women the 7 shake. YEA! Was slightly disappointed in first try to have only 5.

Well I'm 100% positive I would NOT stay upright on that. There was 4 adults hanging to that table and it was still dragging US around. And mid shaking one little girl yelled "ganbare!" which put smile on my face again. I just find that shout from kids so charming every time :D

One group got then to experience long time shake. One that rather than quick shakes makes rather long sweeping movements.

With this they gave short quiz on which way is correct way to deal with earthquakes from 2 options along with final introductions before it was over. Kids got some sort of toys after. Adults had to settle for card showing quick guidelines for disaster event + pamphlet :D

Interesting experience and could even be useful in future if big quake DOES happen while I'm here. No harm in learning bit and did give me chance to practice on listening comprehension. Fairly happy to say I understood large part of explanation.

This experience was something that was possible thanks to studying language. Explanations are in Japanese only. 2 tourists came to reception while I was waiting and had wanted to take part but due to language issue couldn't take part.

Thanks for friends for mentioning this experience. And 100% free admission.