Sports Day and some disappointment

If you were to learn anything about Japanese school life, it should be about "Sports Day". I feel that it is a good representative of the ideals which Japan tries to impress upon their youth. Without being too longwinded, I will try to explain:

Once a year, all schools have a sports day. Elementary, Middle, High school. All of them.

Students will practice for as much as two months beforehand for this one day.

Sports Day in itself is comprised of very few sports. Mostly running various distances, marathon-type stuff, etc.

There will be choreographed dances or other skits.

The school is divided into two teams (with names of colors) and pitted against each other.

Some teachers will also run and participate.

It is very militaristic. This includes marching in unison, shouting and chanting, and even some "sig heil" style salutes.

They usually fall on a weekend. But since all teachers have to go to it, you get a day off during the following work week. This day is called "Daikyu".

My middle school's Sports day is next week (Mother's Day), and I have to say my feelings are mixed. I think it will be fun to see the kids get riled up and excited, fun to run some short races, and photograph most of the day's events. But, today I got a bit disappointed. You see, I was put in charge of helping the teams paint their panels. These are basically large square boards that each team paints a inspiring mascot or exciting picture to boost team moral. Last year's designs consisted of Hokusai's "Great Wave" woodblock print, and a sweet spider panel. This year, since I was told I was in charge of the panels, I got really excited. It's been a while since I have had a chance to work on a project like this and I was looking forward to working with the kids and having a fun day of painting.

Well, things don't always work out the way you want them to, I guess. I came back to school today, the first day after our Golden Week vacation, to find the panels already completed. I had talked to the students right before the break, saying that I wanted them to come to me with some sketched ideas, but no one did. Apparently, they came into school during Golden Week, on a day I was actually in Fukushima, and just did it with some of the other teachers. No one even gave me a ring to see if I was around.

Now, I know that its silly to be upset about this. I don't think that I'm really upset at all. Just really really disappointed. Maybe I'm getting old (!) and take more offense to things like this, but why give me the responsibility if its won't be honored. I don't have much that I do at this school. I teach about 10 classes a week. I help correct my JTE's grammar and pronunciation. I read a lot of blogs on the internet. This was one of my few chances to really prove myself as a teacher at this school. Be a part of the "team" and do something that I was good at doing. We'll see how Sports Day goes, but as of right now, my enthusiasm for it has been crushed and now it just seems like an obstacle standing in the way of my weekend. Basically, something to prevent me from traveling anywhere significant. More and more I feel like a ornament hanging on the Japanese Christmas tree. I hang around and look pretty. I don't support the tree, and I'm not the shining star on top. I'm not connected to a string of lights that all work in unison. Just hang and look pretty. I wonder how many other JETs feel the same...

Am I out of line here?