Japan Disaster Prevention: Headbanger Edition

Wherein I experience a seismic 7 earthquake simulation in a truck the size of a US bathroom! With 2 other people!

Honored samurai, ruthless ronin, wayward vagabonds, shadowy ninja and helpless villagers... welcome.

Opening Volley
It’s a 3-day weekend in Japan as the nation celebrates Ocean Day. No, not that one. I mean, Sea Day or Marine Day, because English Translation Reasons — YAY! Yes, wholesome good fun; none of that corporate sponsored yim-yam like Pocky Day or Ramune Day.

Main Event
To celebrate, my local community center (which is LITERALLY on my doorstep) held a disaster prevention awareness event for area foreign residents. Knowing that I wouldn’t go without an invite, people of the area “invited” me through my mother-in-law. (Don’t say the quiet part out loud.)

Yet despite this obvious trap, I was promised I could experience an earthquake simulation truck despite having been through both 3/11 (2011) and 1/1 (2024). For those of you who do not know, I have been in Japan for 25 years (this month!). Being the glutton for “sick” rides that I am, I agreed. And, ooooooooooh boy!, did I have a time.

Good fortune smiled from the start as my 13-yo daughter and her friend, S, from the Philippines allowed me to join them, or rather, I just tagged along and they seemed alright with that. First things first, there were 6 “stations” to visit, so we started off with the, uhhh, let’s call it “papercraft” station where we learned to make, origami drink cups, bowls, chopsticks, slippers and shoes. I know you think I’m joking, so I brought photos.

I’ll be honest, it was surprisingly interesting, easy and smart. I don’t know how well these things will hold up in the wild but the reality is this... if disaster strikes and newspaper or paper is all you have, well then, beats eating with dirty hands when you have no water to wash with.

We continued around to the smoke-filled room simulation (holy hell that was wild!), fire-extinguisher use (lotta fun), firefighter gear, CPR/AED, cardboard bed stations, and FINALLY, the earthquake simulator station where I banged my head no less than 10 times.

I’m sorry, I MOSTLY shot the floor in the beginning, but I promise, not the whole way through. LOL.

Not only did I smack heads with my poor daughter (seated in front of me), I hit my head on the metal bar holding the table down in the simulator. You can actually HEAR my head thumping. Thanks to my wonderful Filipina neighbors who took the video for us. Apologies for the length, skip to about 43 seconds in.

We never meet without parting
All said and done, it was a great time. If I have a chance to attend more events, I may. I’m not an influencer or a content provider, so I’m not terribly interested in going out of my way to make posts like this, but it was short, sweet and (maybe a little too) close to home.

Next issue... What did I say last issue? That. Whatever I said then.

Until then!
Made in DNA

https://campsite.bio/madeindna