An interruption to my planned blog schedule to record a first ever event for us. In all our travels in so many places we’ve never been evacuated from our hotel. Until last night (everything is okay don’t worry)
We had a busy day yesterday and watched the two Tokyo ball teams play their Saturday night game (Giants 4, Swallows 2) before an early turn in. I heard Wilf get up and go into the bathroom some time later. He was there for just a few minutes and an alarm went off. At first I thought – did he fall and pull the alarm cord in there? But no – message came on in Japanese and English – ‘Fire reported on the 11th floor. Please standby while we investigate.’ Soothing voice – don’t worry. I was beginning to scope out jackets and shoes and my purse with our passports and so on when the new message came.
家事！家事です！Kaji! Kaji desu! Fire! There is a fire! Even in Japanese I understood that. Instructions to evacuate followed. Here’s our hotel viewed from across the street.
We are on the 9th floor. It is 11:10 pm. And it is raining. You can see the staircase behind the building with the orange awning. So, shoes on, sweaters over our night clothes, important stuff in my bag and away we went.
I will say it was calm and organized and everyone just quietly went down the stairs. The open staircase meant we were all being rained on, but everyone took it slow on the metal staircase. Lots of small children, sleepy eyed and confused, being carried down. No smell of smoke, thank heavens. The staircase led us to the elevator lobby, which is separated from the reception area by an automatic door. The lower floor people were in the front lobby and out on the street but we were able to stay inside.
The firemen arrived in their gear and one of them came in and went into the staff area behind the desk. No obvious sense of urgency, so that kept the crowd calm. A supervisor came – complete with clipboard and started up the stairs. By 11:30 we got the all clear and the elevator came back on.
When we checked in on Friday we received a piece of paper telling us that tomorrow- Monday – there would be a fire drill for the staff but it would be nothing for us to worry about. Wonder if tonight will count as a drill for the staff? Everyone seems to have done really well – all was calm and orderly. Perhaps would have been different if we had been able see/hear signs of fire.
So – how was your Saturday night?
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