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出初式, the New Year fire review
In early January, fire departments and volunteer brigades across Japan hold a 出初式, a New Year review. Members in uniform parade before the mayor and guests, are inspected, and demonstrate their skills; many end with a 一斉放水, all hoses spraying at once, often over a river or harbor. In Tokyo and some other cities, members of traditional firefighting preservation groups also perform acrobatics on tall bamboo ladders (はしご乗り), a custom from the Edo period. The review is both a ceremony and a public reminder of the brigade's role. In small towns it draws families and children, and it is one of the few occasions when the whole brigade appears together. The grammar of this lesson is the grammar of contrast and resolve: もかまわず, 反面, にかけては, ないまでも and てはいられない.