A special joint session “How to cope with an earthquake” was held for Tuesday class students who are not used to live in an earthquake-prone country like Japan.

Date/time: Tuesday, March 8, 2017 10:00am-11:30am

Venue: Abista, mini-hall

Participants: 17 Students, 19 Volunteer teachers, 4 child-care volunteers, 4 volunteer teachers in charge of study group: 45 people in total

Members of the study group explained the day’s program ranging from preparation to actions to be taken when an earthquake occurs.

1. Influences on our daily life Mrs. Watanabe referred to the inconveniences caused by occurrence of an earthquake, such as living, life, tsunami, liquification, corruption of houses, fire, scarcity of daily-goods at supermarkets, failure of lifeline such as water, gas, electricity, telephone, etc. Ms. Lu Jing reported about what she had experienced at the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake with a maximum seismic scale 7 in October 2004. (refer AIRA Newsletter of July 2016 for detail)

2. Actions to be taken to an Urgent Earthquake Announcement Quickly hide yourself under a table, put out a fire, make sure about an exit, extinguish a fire at the earliest stage, and precautions in evacuation, etc.

Actual drill was performed by students.(by Ms. Isogai)

3. Readiness for the evacuation An explanation was given on the musts such as, to make sure about the evacuation point near your house, the difference between a shelter and temporal evacuation spot, emergency message service system with your family, and the voice information service.(by Ms. Yuasa)

4. Storage of commodities for quake occurrence A detailed explanation was given on the case that the lifeline is out of service such as water, electricity, gas, etc., showing substituting materials. Students tried to make instant toilets using a plastic bag and coagulant. (by Ms. Kubota)

There were raised questions as to where to buy commodities, how many water bottles should be stocked, etc., which students earnestly listened to.

To get ready for an earthquake as a whole may be hard to be understood for those who have never met one. Knowing the importance of the precaution against an earthquake, the Japanese language class is ready for opening another class in near future.　　 (No. 16-35 Translated by T. Sugano)