First, as with all ceremonies, there were quite a few salutes, speeches, and other formalities. The firemen were lined up by company, with I believe different flags for each different section, and saluted many, many times.
After
about half an hour of saluting, standing at attention, and being rained on, they broke formation and set up a bunch of 2.5 meter tall ladders. Originally, the job of the firemen was to tear down houses near fires so that the fire wouldn't spread. Therefore, they had to be pretty agile on top of the ladders to be able to collapse the houses without getting burned themselves. There was an ankle strap, used for the more daring of the stunts, and each ladder was held straight by a team of men at the bottom. Others would wave the standard and cheer once their performer was done with his trick. It was an impressive performance.There was music, cheering, standard-waving, and acrobatics for awhile, and then the firemen cleared the field, taking their ladders with them. Firemen dressed only in a white sheet, skillfully wrapped around their waist, took the field, along with the golden
standards and the firehoses. As a finale for the day, they proved their manliness by not only wearing such small garments on a cold, rainy January morning, but by then turning on the firehoses and either standing in or running around in the resulting spray. I'm not sure if it's an "honor" for the older members or some form of hazing for the new guys, but it is interesting to see! The firetrucks have their sirens and lights going through this as well, so it is a loud and impressive sight.
1 comment:
Lee,
somehow...having read all the other posts about Japan...this actually makes perfect sense
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