The Deluge.

It has been raining. Consistently, incessantly, continuously since Friday the 6th of June. In the previous eight days (and counting) we have had over 400mm of rain, which for the imperial minded amongst you equates to 675.8 gallons (approximately). It hasn't been the intemittent showery rain Irish summers are cursed with, but rather full-on, don't stop till you've had enough, biblical downpours. For two days running they have had Muroran on a 'Red' landslide warning and all trains between here and Sapporo have been cancelled. Even the ducks are complaining.
I'm thinking of building an ark.
So, it is wet, thoroughly aquatic even. And tomorrow is supposed to be Cian's sports day. There is a more than a watery whiff of deja vu to all this. Last year we experienced similar conditions and the Sports Day had to be postponed. In fact, pretty much every year we experience these conditions but those in charge seem to be happily oblivious to this.
Unlike the rest of Japan Hokkaido, you are often told, does not experience tsuyu - the rainy season. That's a lie.
In the 16 years I have been living in Hokkaido every June brings with it prolonged, persistent rain that can last up to three weeks before it finally relents. Now, this isn't the case for the whole island but rather just the Pacific side, so people lucky enough to be living in sunny Sapporo are happily oblivious to our sodden, damp, mold ridden existence here in Muroran.
So June - the weather is never good, usually not even close to middling. But yet all the schools in the city persist in holding their sports days in June. And why is this? Well, again you will be told that it is 'traditional'; since time immemorial sports days have been held in June. But 16 years have also taught me that 'tradition' is in fact the Japanese word for 'stifling inertia'; nobody in a position of authority is willing to step up and say "Arrah lads, for feck's sake, enough of this wet shite. We're not fish. Why don't we shift the whole extravaganza to the beginning of July? Tends to be sunny then".
So June, tomorrow to be exact. Or inexact, as of this time of writing Cian's school still hasn't decided whether or not they will go ahead with the event. And as of time of writing it is, to use a meteorological term, pissing down outside. Earlier today I took a photograph of the sport's field at the school. Short of a giant with a giant hairdryer magically appearing and spending the night blow drying the ground, there is no wet way the surface will be fit for anything else besides paddling.

You'd like to think that common sense would prevail but as last year abruptly proved, common sense has no place at the Sports Day.
Instead we will be notified by fireworks at 5:30 tomorrow morning.
No, really, we will.
Communicative devices like telephones and email are just way to unreliable and, let's face it, untraditional.
So should all systems be (unbelievably) go we will be notified by a series of city wide explosions at the crack of dawn. If sense prevails then the silence should be deafening.
I will keep you posted.