There’s been a lot of coverage recently of the World Figure Skating Championships, held last month here in Tokyo. I usually couldn’t give a blind wombat about that kind of sporting event – the hurty bit when they fall over puts me off – but such was the hype that accompanied the rivalry between the two top Japanese competitors this year (who eventually took Gold and Silver medals) that even I had to tune in.

Also taking place last month was the synchronized swimming world championships, which again caused uproar over here when Japan came in second just behind Russia. Once again, I wasn’t really that interested at first. All that chlorine, silly hats and inability to see the faces of the participants to check out how cute they are.

Still, all the media hype and TV coverage meant that in the end I had to kind of get involved (by that I mean I had to watch it on TV). It was, I must admit, pretty impressive, especially for someone like me who finds it hard to do anything but doggy paddle when it comes to deep water. It’s the big monsters in the bottom of the pool that scare me.

However, today, all that was simply blown away by an astonishing spectacle I saw played out on the street of Shinjuku – a staggering display of Sychronised Signalling.

These guys were just stunning, directing traffic in time to the boom wiggy boom of the music from their portable stereo.

They may look like your average group of traffic people who have an absolutely pointless job (like the team of 12 I saw in Osaka last month whose task it was to see pedestrians across the road when the little green man was on green! (Or should that be ‘blue’…?!)), but no, these guys had the funk, they were groovin’ and a movin’, in the yo yo wiggy synchro styleeeee.

RESPECT!