Ok, dear reader, it is not from my usual catalogue of music, but it
is a song. Fear not, all will become
apparent as you read on …
Another 8am start, Mr Onda drove us from the hotel to Otani where we
boarded the bus for Nagoya. First stop
was the Disaster Prevention Centre. This
was a timely visit as we had just received news of a typhoon in the Tokyo area
that was supposed to be heading for our area on the weekend. (The latest report has the typhoon heading towards China - good news for us, not for them).
It was another picture perfect day weather wise, although the
temperature had hit 31 reasonably early and the humidity was quite high. The Disaster Prevention Centre focused on
three main areas: earthquake, typhoon and fire safety. There was also a replica fire engine and a
re-built helicopter cockpit for the younger audience.
The students were required to break into groups of 6. The first activity was the earthquake room,
where a quake of a magnitude of 7 could be experienced. The first group was mostly Gilroy students
and over-acting Ciaran earned the wrath of the supervisor who wanted to impress
upon us the importance of being earthquake ready – any more foolishness and
no-one else would be allowed into the simulator. Then to the typhoon room, a 3-D experience
that required shoes to be removed. We
opted to stay outside. Brett braved the
over-crowded the room and was firm in the belief that the stench of feet
presented more danger than a typhoon.
The last major typhoon hit Nagoya in 1959, the year I was born. Coincidence?
The final demonstration involved finding your way out of a dark,
smoke-filled room. While there were a
lot of laughs on the way through, I’m not sure the Aussies in the group really
understood the importance of what they were doing. We really are the lucky country.
 |
| Pre-quake |
 |
| The beginning |
 |
| The end |
Back onto the bus and to lunch at the Red Lobster in the shopping
centre near the Nagoya Aquarium. Once
again we were fabulously well looked after and Brett expanded his diet by
trying the mixed seafood plate.
We visited the aquarium last time as well. In comparison with Sydney, it is
massive. I’d decided before we arrived
this time, not to take our Japanese visitors to our aquarium next year – and
then I changed my mind. While the Nagoya
version is significantly larger, the dolphins, dugongs, killer whales and
penguins are kept in rather sterile surroundings. It is like an old-school zoo. Whereas in Sydney the tanks attempt to
recreate the natural environment. Sydney
Aquarium will be included for discussion when we look at the agenda for next
year.
We left all but two students at the aquarium to catch the tube home
with their hosts. Toyota Otani is
situated out of Toyota itself and most students would find it easier to get
home via train. They were all present
and accounted for the next morning. We
were dropped back at the hotel and had a couple of hours to rest and change
prior to heading out to dinner at a BBQ House with 22 of the Otani staff.
The Onda taxi service was on time as always. We were clapped into the room and followed
the protocols for seating, almost, Kayo decided to seat Brett down the other
end of the table amongst the young female English teachers. Match-making?
Or recruitment of a new Japanese teacher for Gilroy? We’ll see.
Dinner this time was a much more pleasant affair than I recall from
our 2007 experience. Mr Kato, the new
principal, is a lovely, welcoming man with a great sense of humour and what
appears to be a humble approach to leadership.
My concern for the evening was always going to be how to refuse the
intestines when they were dished up. The
first course arrived, green beans, of which you eat the seed and not the
pod. It was accompanied with some small
deep fried thing – I have no idea what, and bamboo shoots done in chilli,
yum. This was followed by a salad of
cabbage, corn kernels and something crunchy like roasted slivered almonds with
a dressing – yum, again.
Then the meat began to arrive.
Mr Kanzaki, who spoke English and was sitting opposite Jayne, decided to
be helpful and informed us the first dish was beef tongue – a very expensive
delicacy. Tongue. Oh yay.
It wasn’t that bad, it tasted more of the smoke from the BBQ than
anything and was followed by pork. We
opted not ask and thankfully Mr Kanzaki didn’t offer to tell us. More beef dishes followed, interspersed by a
game of bingo. Yes, gentle reader, bingo,
hence the title of the blog. Mr Anbo
produced bingo sheets with push-out numbers and a little machine that contained
the numbered balls. After the first
winners – all from Otani, I remarked to Jayne that, as principal, I should be
winning. Excellent timing on my part,
she had a mouthful of beer and almost spat it onto the table.
Finally the dreaded moment arrived, the white gangly bits of meat
arrived and were placed on the BBQ. The
memory of chewing an under-cooked piece of this came flooding back as did
memories of the unappealing texture. I
had a brief conversation with Kayo as Jayne exchanged words with Mr Kanzaki and
it was agreed that we would forgo the intestines. Brett, to his credit, had two pieces. There followed some more meat, squid and then
a dessert of fruit and sorbet. Unlike
last time where the AP stood and clapped his hands and we all vacated the
premises, this time Mr Anbo closed proceedings, another teacher delivered a few
words of thank you in English and it was time for home.
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