Japanese Fire Drills

When I got the email announcing the annual ATR Emergency Evacuation Drill, I was certainly not looking forward to it... but it turned out to be one of the most interesting and amusing experiences I've had in Japan.
In Canada, fire drills consist of teachers or co-workers trying desperately to keep order amide chaos as everyone in the building leaves and lines up outside. Usually this is followed by some sort of attendance taking and then everyone gets back to work. So Japan must do something similar right? Nope!! It started out normally enough the supervisor of our department put on his emergency helmet and called for everyone to 'escape! escape'. He looked so goofy, none of us could take him seriously. Once we proceded to the back of the building, we saw that the fire department was there in some sweet jumpsuits. The fire chief guy just loved being in front of everyone and seemed to try and build anticipation for each of the safety procedures he was describing. My favorite part was the smoke tent. They had a big orange tent set up filled with artificial smoke that you had to try and navigate yourself through. Once inside, you really couldn't see a thing and it was a bit of a maze to get through. Everyone came out making some great choking faces!The smoke tent was followed by a fire extinguisher demonstration that included a real fire! They lit up a big gas fire in a metal pan and then let people try putting it out. It was sweet. Except that the croud of a couple hundred people was running all around to try and avoid the smoke and extinguisher dust. The next event was fire hose target practice! They actually got the fire hose going full blast and let people try aiming it. Seriously why don't they let us do this in Canada? All these items are things that are all around us, but it seems that very few people every get to use them until a real emergency. Doesn't it make sense to let people practice? One of my coworkers was telling me that usually they have an earthquake simulation as well. It's a mini house and you have to go through and turn off the gas etc while it's 'quaking'. The whole room tips and shakes all over the place!! I think I need to write some letters to politicians in Canada and get something like this at home. Guaranteed people here are more prepared for a real emergency. Plus it's much more fun.