Asa no Taisou

Another day at the office. Today I have an actual task, though. I have to write a few sentences about myself for publication in something. It was never really explained, but it's probably just the local newspaper. Hopefully, anyway, because my Japanese isn't good enough to where I'd like to see it written all over. It's fairly standard stuff, though, so it isn't too hard. I'm mostly done with it, so I thought I'd take a break to post about Asa no Taisou.
Asa no Taisou (a term I am cobbling together, not one they told me specifically) means morning's calisthenics, roughly. Every morning around 8:20, the radio comes on and starts playing this weird music, mostly bells, with a man counting sets of 8 or so and occasionally saying things I can understand, but involving ashi, or legs. All the people in the office get up and start stretching. I'm not actually sure if it's the radio or what, but one lady asked me if I knew what "rajio taisou" was in English. The thing is that "rajio" may mean cassette player or anything else like it, in addition to just radio. I wasn't sure what "taisou" meant, but "tai" is the root for body, so I kind of guessed and told her calisthenics. My electronic dictionary tells me it's gymnastics, but nobody here is doing any flips, so I think my translation is better.
Jo, the New Zealander at the desk opposite mine, really hates "morning stretch," as one worker here called it, and somehow always comes in just as it is finishing. She tells me that they used to play it at her apartment at 6:30 every morning before she disconnected the radio or something, and said it was a bit "big brother-ish." I'm not going to deny that; it is bizarre in that way. I don't really mind it, though, especially since I'm generally not doing much other work at the time. Yesterday was my first day with "morning stretch," so you can imagine I was a little confused when it started. I just went with it, though, and it worked out. My supervisor laughed a little when she saw me do it, in that kind of foreigners-are-so-cute kind of way, so there was much fun to be had. It's a little weird, but I think American workplaces should adopt the practice.