Fire drills. A whole new picture comes to mind when I think of that word now. There was a fire drill at Baiko today and not just any fire drill! Knowing that the fire drill was going to occur today. I asked one of the homeroom teachers if I could join her class. I heard a little bit about it and wanted to experience it for myself. She said sure. Thus, I joined the IIIE class for this experience.

In one of the rooms they set up a fog machine, so the room is filled with "smoke" to give the students an idea of what it would be like in a real fire. Once the knock is sounded on the classroom door, students grab their handkerchiefs and file out to the smoke filled room. Once in the hallway you can see the curling white smoke coming out the door cracks. One also recognizes the distinct smell of vanilla extract. Yes, that's right, they have vanilla sented smoke. Then a fireman gives the students a briefing on the experience. What he says I have no idea except that six to in at a time. I went in with five of my students. It is quite the experience! Chiaki took the lead and the rest of us got in a line putting one hand on the shoulder in front of us. Once we were in the smoke-filled room, you couldn't see anything expect the smoke. It probably took us about one minute to get through the room. I'm not sure if students actually learn anything from this experience (maybe they do in the talk/lecture they have afterwards with a fireman), but it was much more exciting than any fire drill I had in America!