DAY 9 (March 19, 2013)
Last day in Tokyo.
It was another morning in Edmont where the breakfast buffet surprised me with the number of people in line waiting to be seated. It was even longer this time.
We checked out of the hotel then headed to Honjo Life Training Center to learn about damages caused by disasters like earthquakes, flood, or fire, and be disaster-prepared.
For the first part, we went to their theater where we were shown a 20-minute video clip about the Tohoku Earthquake. Afterwards we were divided according to our groups.
Then we went down to the ground floor where flood-drill simulation(?) area is and watched a clip with regards to the flooding in Tokyo. I didn’t know Tokyo had floods before. After the short film, we got to try the door: the situation is you’re on the basement and the flood water starts to block the exit door and you have to be able to open it to escape.
You get to choose the water level you want between 10 to 40 meters, of course the higher the water level the heavier the door gets and the harder it is for you to open. I chose the 30m-setting and managed to escape. The door sure was heavy!
The third part is the earthquake simulation. We watched some clips and we also got to experience the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck the Tohoku Region.
The fourth part is the fire drill. We were in a wide room in the 2nd floor where fire extinguishers are waiting to be used and then there’s big screen in front. We were taught on how to properly respond and exhaust when there’s fire. For the simulation, the staff first demonstrated on what we should do, since we’re in Japan, we had to shout “Kaji da!” before grabbing the fire extinguisher and aim on the source of the fire (which will appear on the screen); afterwards we did the simulation by 4s.
And lastly, the first aid. They said when you call 119 in Japan, it would only take around 5 minutes for the ambulance to respond. For incidents where someone collapsed from a heart attack in the middle of the street, someone should at least be able to prevent the person’s condition from getting worse within those 5 minutes of waiting. Aside from the common CPR, there’s this automated external defibrillator (AED) required for every store in Japan to have so that if ever there will be such incident, it may serve as a first aid to the person in need. So we had a CPR and AED demonstration with these:
To be honest, it was my first-time experiencing such kind of simulations, moreover hands-on! Though I have seen (YES, SEEN) a fire-drill done when I was 4th year high school, we didn’t even get the chance to experience it the way we had in Japan. It was so amazing to have a very informative training center like that. Oh, how I wish Philippines had facilities like that too since we are very prone to typhoons, flooding, and fire; and I don’t think everyone has the right knowledge in doing it because Filipinos usually move according to their own instinct in times of disasters. If ever we’ll have such learning center, wouldn’t their educational tours be more worthy to students as young as those from Kindergarten?
We now headed to Asakusa and passed by Tokyo Sky Tree which we’ve always seen from a distance. There were a lot of tourists in the area which probably went up to the tower. We also passed by some parks and some of the cherry blossoms trees have started to bloom already. It’s really frustrating we won’t make it until the trees are in their full glory!
We had our lunch in Tofuro and had a very good view of Tokyo Sky Tree from the private room we were at.
We walked to the Senso-ji Temple. It was even more packed with foreign tourists. We were lucky to have found a cherry blossom tree in bloom nearby, so we took our chances and took loads of photos even if it took almost half of our free time to go around the temple. We went into the main temple, prayed to their Goddess of Mercy, and even tried Omikuji, a written fortune. Thankfully, I got a good luck.
Then we walked to the 200m-long-street of nakamise, stores selling traditional Japanese souvenirs, foods, etc.
We didn’t even manage to reach the other end because of the so little time we’ve left. But then, I’ve managed to buy a kendama, Hello Kity Asakusa and Sky Tree key chains, and 10 pieces of taiyaki.
And we finally left for our final action plan presentation which we presented to the representatives from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Embassy of the Philippines, and Japan International Cooperation Center.
After the presentations, each was awarded with the certificate of participation, and then 3 of the 6 coordinators from JICE had to say their goodbyes already. Everyone’s in tears again. Saying goodbye is definitely the hardest part.
And it was also time to say goodbye to Tokyo.
We returned to Narita for our last night in Tobu Hotel. We had Chinese food for dinner, which everyone found weird. To be honest, I did wonder why. Is it because Filipino food is close to Chinese and we’re about to go home the following day so it turned out like that? Anyway, I did my last minute shopping for souvenirs at the hotel’s souvenir shop.
Prologue
Day 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10
It was another morning in Edmont where the breakfast buffet surprised me with the number of people in line waiting to be seated. It was even longer this time.
We checked out of the hotel then headed to Honjo Life Training Center to learn about damages caused by disasters like earthquakes, flood, or fire, and be disaster-prepared.
For the first part, we went to their theater where we were shown a 20-minute video clip about the Tohoku Earthquake. Afterwards we were divided according to our groups.
Then we went down to the ground floor where flood-drill simulation(?) area is and watched a clip with regards to the flooding in Tokyo. I didn’t know Tokyo had floods before. After the short film, we got to try the door: the situation is you’re on the basement and the flood water starts to block the exit door and you have to be able to open it to escape.
You get to choose the water level you want between 10 to 40 meters, of course the higher the water level the heavier the door gets and the harder it is for you to open. I chose the 30m-setting and managed to escape. The door sure was heavy!
The third part is the earthquake simulation. We watched some clips and we also got to experience the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck the Tohoku Region.
The fourth part is the fire drill. We were in a wide room in the 2nd floor where fire extinguishers are waiting to be used and then there’s big screen in front. We were taught on how to properly respond and exhaust when there’s fire. For the simulation, the staff first demonstrated on what we should do, since we’re in Japan, we had to shout “Kaji da!” before grabbing the fire extinguisher and aim on the source of the fire (which will appear on the screen); afterwards we did the simulation by 4s.
And lastly, the first aid. They said when you call 119 in Japan, it would only take around 5 minutes for the ambulance to respond. For incidents where someone collapsed from a heart attack in the middle of the street, someone should at least be able to prevent the person’s condition from getting worse within those 5 minutes of waiting. Aside from the common CPR, there’s this automated external defibrillator (AED) required for every store in Japan to have so that if ever there will be such incident, it may serve as a first aid to the person in need. So we had a CPR and AED demonstration with these:
To be honest, it was my first-time experiencing such kind of simulations, moreover hands-on! Though I have seen (YES, SEEN) a fire-drill done when I was 4th year high school, we didn’t even get the chance to experience it the way we had in Japan. It was so amazing to have a very informative training center like that. Oh, how I wish Philippines had facilities like that too since we are very prone to typhoons, flooding, and fire; and I don’t think everyone has the right knowledge in doing it because Filipinos usually move according to their own instinct in times of disasters. If ever we’ll have such learning center, wouldn’t their educational tours be more worthy to students as young as those from Kindergarten?
We now headed to Asakusa and passed by Tokyo Sky Tree which we’ve always seen from a distance. There were a lot of tourists in the area which probably went up to the tower. We also passed by some parks and some of the cherry blossoms trees have started to bloom already. It’s really frustrating we won’t make it until the trees are in their full glory!
We had our lunch in Tofuro and had a very good view of Tokyo Sky Tree from the private room we were at.
We walked to the Senso-ji Temple. It was even more packed with foreign tourists. We were lucky to have found a cherry blossom tree in bloom nearby, so we took our chances and took loads of photos even if it took almost half of our free time to go around the temple. We went into the main temple, prayed to their Goddess of Mercy, and even tried Omikuji, a written fortune. Thankfully, I got a good luck.
Then we walked to the 200m-long-street of nakamise, stores selling traditional Japanese souvenirs, foods, etc.
We didn’t even manage to reach the other end because of the so little time we’ve left. But then, I’ve managed to buy a kendama, Hello Kity Asakusa and Sky Tree key chains, and 10 pieces of taiyaki.
And we finally left for our final action plan presentation which we presented to the representatives from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Embassy of the Philippines, and Japan International Cooperation Center.
After the presentations, each was awarded with the certificate of participation, and then 3 of the 6 coordinators from JICE had to say their goodbyes already. Everyone’s in tears again. Saying goodbye is definitely the hardest part.
And it was also time to say goodbye to Tokyo.
We returned to Narita for our last night in Tobu Hotel. We had Chinese food for dinner, which everyone found weird. To be honest, I did wonder why. Is it because Filipino food is close to Chinese and we’re about to go home the following day so it turned out like that? Anyway, I did my last minute shopping for souvenirs at the hotel’s souvenir shop.
Prologue
Day 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10