Remember when zombies were absolutely terrifying? (Thriller, Zombie Beach Party, Rob Zombie). Nowadays, they have a 100% better chance than you of getting a permit for their band of undead from Park & Rec. (and you just wanted to set-up the hibachi).

The return of Zombie Kickball was actually in 2007. This is Zombie Kickball IV: Kicking Ass and Taking Brains (lifted that one from their MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/zombiekickball)

Zombie Kickball Founder (Head Brain Banshee in Charge) Catherine Krupsky posted on MySpace that this is her last year organizing. Judging by the video, there’s a whole new generation that could either keep the tradition alive, or come up with the next pop culture leisure sport. (Post-apocalyptic nuclear winter bocce?)

Check out some photos (c/o Strange Maine)…

Un-dead zone (Portland Press Herald)

Japan News recently aired this clip of a Japanese Women’s Prison holding a sports day for the inmates.

These Sports Days traditionally take place each Fall in Japanese elementary schools. Called Undokai, they’re held across the country for kids ages K – high school, and features unusual games like pan-kui kyoso, which is a race where competitors must grab a piece of bread hanging at face height without using their hands.

Think MXC without the rope swing pitfalls, and the futile attempts at pillar-hopping, and the moats. Basically, it’s pretty budget. Not necessarily because of the traditions of Japanese sports day, but probably, because it’s jail.

I won’t tell you which team, but get yourself ready to see a phenom emerge (happens at about the 4:30 minute mark, if you want to expedite the process here) and carry her team to glory . Sweet, incarcerated, glory.

Also, like all transcendent timeless tales, one the characters has to convert. So prepare yourself for a security guard to be moved to tears towards the end of this.

According to the source of this video, Japan Probe, that was a “19-year-old prison guard who had recently started working at the facility and had never before seen such an event. She had previously seen the inmates as mainly criminals who deserved imprisonment as punishment for their crimes, but seeing them participate in the event has made her see them more as fellow human beings.”

Sporting meets detainment, bringing people together. Harmony, love it. Special recognition to the commenter who best speculates what that criminally speedy relay champ got sent up the river for.