Explore everyday life in Japan

Emergency Preparedness

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As everyone knows, Japan is very prone to earthquakes. In fact, there are an average of around 1,500 earthquakes in Japan every year. When and where they will strike, and how strong they will be, nobody knows. That’s why the saying for earthquake preparedness in Japan is Itsu demo. Doko demo. Which literally means Anytime. Anywhere.

Of course, this saying could be applied to all accidents and happenings. We never know when or where an accident will happen, nor how bad it will be, that’s why emergency response training and emergency preparedness are important.

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Last week, I attended an annually held emergency preparedness workshop at a local park. It was organized by a few members in the community and staffed by volunteers. All the supplies, which consisted of tents, tables, tanks of propane, burners, pots and pans, plastic wrap, utensils, etc. were taken out of storage from the park shed where they are permanently stored. They were then set up as if an earthquake or some other emergency had actually happened, and the attendees were divided into groups.

One group was in charge of making and continuously stirring a giant pot of Japanese curry, enough to feed over 400 people. Another group was given pairs of rubber gloves and put in charge of making hundreds of rice balls, which they then covered with plastic wrap. And yet another group, mostly consisting of older women, was put in charge of giving lessons on how to cook rations of rice for hundreds of people.

The technique for doing so consisted of placing individual portions of rice in plastic bags with an equal portion of water, squeezing the air out of the bags, sealing them shut with tape on which each person wrote his or her name, and then placing them in a pot of simmering water for 15 minutes, after which the heat was turned off and the bags of rice were left to continue cooking in the hot water for another 30 minutes or so.

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As the food preparations came to completion at different times, people were encouraged to eat when they could, something that isn’t typical of eating in Japan. The old man in charge of the event reminded everyone that in a real emergency situation, nobody has the luxury to wait, eat together, or say itadakimasu as a group like is typically done in Japan (Itadakimasu is a word of thanksgiving that is usually said before eating in Japan).

He also told everyone that no matter what the emergency, if they were working to help people, they needed to smile. Regardless of how bad the situation was, the first thing a volunteer worker should do, he said, is smile. Then, from that smile, he continued, one should act, which is a notion that I have found to be fairly common in Japan.

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How about you? How do you prepare for emergencies? What do you think is important as an emergency worker, a first responder, or just a community aid?

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Image Credits: All images in this post are original.

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This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting regular updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.

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If you missed my last post, you can find it here Tokoroten.