Sports day is coming!

It`s a Saturday morning and I`m sitting here at work! Tomorrow (weather permitting) is sports day, one of the strangest days in the Japanese school year and one which gives a very good indication of Japanese life in all its glory.

The whole thing is organised and rehearsed within inches of its life. All summer the brass band have been practicing such marching greats as `Copa Cobana` and the olde English hymn `Thine be the glory` (one that brings flashbacks to my days at the school church services trying to keep my eyes open).

Even the games themselves are rehearsed and what games they are! We are not talking about the 100m or the long jump, but the human bicycle (students scrabble round a course rolling a bicycle wheel), the tug-o-war and the wheelbarrow-with-footballs-in-it obstacle course (speaks for itself).

But the most impressive thing about the event is that it is pretty much entirely organised by the students. Myself and most of the other teachers find ourselves observing from the side-line watching the events unfold - it is only me who is slightly bemused by the whole event.

For me disorganisation was almost an integral part of my school`s sports day. Nothing was rehearsed very much and at times it really showed. There were teachers` races, parents` races, younger brother races (which I won once I am proud to say!) and so on.

It feels like the only similarity between a typical English sports day and the Japanese sports day is the comedic element. The big difference is how they manifest themselves. For the English sports day this was achieved through its disorganisation, and for the Japanese one this is achieved through the silly nature of the events.