Super Taisou

Yesterday the whole office was going crazy about radio taisou, the morning exercise that we do every day. It turns out there was a town-wide taisou event where, I am mostly guessing here, the people who actually record the radio stuff came and tons of people came out to do it and be part of the recording (I think). What it meant was I had to get up at 3:30 (I sort of volunteered for this) so they could pick me up at 4, so we could drive across town to "N"-town, where everyone was gathering.
There were people setting stuff up and most of the folks from the office were already there. Mostly I just stood around. I met an older guy who is the head of the international exchange group (a rough translation) here in town. He spoke a few words of English, which was weird because he was obviously trying very hard, which I appreciate, to put it into English, even though he learned I could speak (at least some) Japanese. I also had brief conversations with people from the local elementary schools, whom I have met already. From one guy, I learned that everyone in Japan has been doing radio taisou, starting in schools, since Showa year 4 or thereabouts, which makes it 80 years or more old.
We didn't actually start the taisou until 6:30, but there was a warm-up for it, which is kind of strange, since it is itself a warm-up for the day. The warm-up exercises were purposefully hard, involving a lot of coordination, so basically everyone would mess them up and a good laugh would be had by all. We were all just standing in a field, forming a grid, while doing this. People kept showing up through the warm-up and subsequent speeches given by the mayor, somebody from the prefecture (maybe a governor, I didn't really catch it), the head of the post office, and a couple other important people. By the time we actually got to the radio taisou, there were supposedly 2,500 people there. So, we did that for the usual ten minutes, there were a few more speeches, and everyone left, getting a free gift bag on the way out.
All the workers from the kyouikuiinkai, or board of education (that's not a typo with the two i's) stayed, so I stayed, too, not knowing what was going on or having any way to leave. Jo left to go to the BOE because she assumed everyone was going there. Well, everyone stayed and we took down the tents and picked up, etc. Then we ate breakfast. A lady from the office took me back to the BOE and brought Jo's breakfast. I had a nice conversation with her where I pretty much had to ask her to repeat everything because I can't understand anyone unless they are speaking unnaturally slowly. But, anyway, that was an exciting morning.