Year-end Patrol
Time to live blog volunteer fire corps 歳末警戒 Year-end Patrol.
20:11
I am holding down the firehouse while three others drive the truck with lights on and soft bell ringing and messages of year-end / dry season fire safety being pronounced over the microphone. This means that when the truck gets to the turnaround point, they radio to me reporting that nothing is abnormal, and I acknowledge receipt of this information and wish them continued safe driving. All of the other 11 squads of our brigade are listening on the same frequency though, so there is a bit of pressure to sound practiced over the air. Slight nervousness but not much. More nervous is when the brigade headquarters raises us on the radio to ask something, or something. Then it can be less clear what they are saying and it is embarrassing to have to ask for them to repeat themselves.
The kerosene stove with an electric fan in it is blasting out the Good Heat. The television is playing one of those ubiquitous year-end music review shows that includes a large helping of hits from years past too. Right now it’s that song by the band with a dude named Issa where they mostly just sing the chorus “Come on baby—America!” Not a banger but better than many songs.
There is a long, low table on the carpet we have placed over the wooden floor. A dozen 座布団 cushions sit around it. They are resilient and springy, having replaced some desperately old brown ones that had been flattened and farted upon for decades. This year we also acquired two chairs with backs and tiny legs of maybe 10cm length to accommodate our older squad members more comfortably around the table during meetings and down time. We lovingly call them 敬老席 respect-for-the-aged chairs. They are really comfortable, these weird low and seatbacked chairs. Try one today at your local Japanese home center.
20:37
For Reasons™️ another squad is bringing a collapsible temporary water tank to set up next to our firehouse and fill and leave for a night to test for leaks. They are nearly here. This highly irregular operation is the subject of conversation and intrigue.
20:40
I am sleepy and ponder fixing a Blendy Stick cafe au lait, but know damn well that will keep me up long after midnight when this is done. So I enjoy a cold 十六茶 Jūrokucha instead.
20:43
The other squad arrives. I remain upstairs on radio duty. I am ashamed to admit that I am glad to be upstairs and not have to set up the temporary tank or guard traffic around the manhole fire hydrant from which it will be filled. Just me and my little 十六茶 basking in WARMPTH.
20:48
One thing we also do in the firehouse whenever we are here is monitor the professional fire department’s radio frequency, which is different from our own. The dispatchers on that are very rapid fire and use a ton of shorthand words and numerical codes to signify different situations or conditions. That can be interesting and is very hard to try and decipher. And of course it sometimes blows up with a big emergency somewhere in Tokyo.
21:15
We are tasked with taking photos of the aforementioned water tank at intervals to assess whether it leaks significantly. I placed a piece of tape just above the initial water line and will take photos until we leave just after midnight. In addition to photos of the pavement area on the ever-so-slight slope down from where the tank sits.
21:55
We each ate a yakiniku bento while talking of various ramen joints. Lots of good information gained. Also, one of our retired sempai gave us his usual 差し入れ gift: A box of Yunker energy? health? mystery? drinks. I don’t mess with these almost ever and won’t tonight. But it is a wonderful symbol of the sempai’s love for us.
22:11
I am ready for the walking patrol to begin with me as a participant. The previous patrol that happened while I manned the radio was done by three dudes in the truck.
22:17
A job came along before that. The kerosene stove ran out of fuel. I went downstairs to fill its removable tank using the old-school siphon. I love its simplicity. Good times.
23:19
We return from a walk through each and every path in our neighborhood. It is long and narrow and along a river, but there are surprisingly many little streets and footpaths. So we walk each one and shine flashlights in the nooks and crannies and ring a bell tied around [on this occasion my] waist. The point of all this is to deter arsonists—which were historically a problem around New Year’s, when lots of people leave town—and other general crimes such as burglary, and also to watch out for fires that can happen in empty homes and gardens in this driest season of the year.
Anyway it was a great walk. I love having a reason to walk every single bit of the neighborhood and notice the little changes that inevitably occur over time. And our coats are so warm that the vigor of a brisk walk is more than enough to stay warm. I broke a light sweat.
23:45
The water tank has leaked almost none at all. There is a little trickle of water headed away from the tank on the ground, but not even enough volume to continue to an eventual end—it just dies out. The water line is virtually unchanged too. Maybe down a few millimeters.
The reason for this test is that the tank will be used at the annual 出初式 New Year’s Review of the entire city volunteer fire corps in early January. Several of these tanks are filled up with different colors of dyed water, and then at a determined time, fire pumps and hoses shoot the water of the various tanks in unison to create a neat rainbow effect with their respective plumes in array. It is the main event for many of the spectators who attend. So if our tank is going to leak in any quantity, our brigade will need to get it repaired or replaced before then, to prevent a disgraceful scene in which our stream peters out early and thereby ruins the rainbow effect.
The squad that is not us and that will use the tank does not have a fire hydrant convenient to their firehouse, and so they came to ours. Mystery solved.
24:11
Now I am home. The last stretch was just chewing the fat with the other three guys. One asked me to stop by the duty free shop on my next trip out of Japan and get him some Yamazaki whiskey. (My next overseas trip, by the way, is to Belgium and Germany in March.)
Apparently if one is leaving the country, the duty free shop will let one enter a drawing to win the privilege of purchasing a bottle for 50,000 yen or so. He says he will gladly pay, so I am happy to do that for him. He has to remind me though.
I will do the patrol again tomorrow night. It will be quite similar to tonight, the way tonight was similar to last year and the year before it. Year-end Patrol is another tradition that has become ingrained in my life. No year can end without it. Hopefully next year we can resume our big meal and drinksfest, which used to cap the final day of patrol. That tradition needs to come back.
