14 July 2021 (Wednesday) – Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 2 (of 2): Xenolypics
Here is YESTERDAY’S Olympic-related stuff. It’s a long one, but plenty juicy.
See photo captions for stories
Photo 01
The Olympic village opened on Tuesday.
Photo 02
There was no event such as an opening ceremony.
Photo 03
And no athletes to be seen.
[The first contingents of athletes checked in Wednesday.]
Photo 04
The Olympic village is capable of accommodating up to 18000 athletes and their entourages.
Photo 05
[I guess this must be the cafeteria. Socially distanced and partitioned as required of Tokyo restaurants? Not in this pic..
Maybe this is a way-old file photo so hard to say if anything has changed, but here we have seating facing each other and no partitions. Perhaps people are expected not to talk?]
Photo 06
Another view [of a communal area? This one has partitions]
The caption bottom left reminds us that athletes staying at the Olympic Village will be tested every day.
[When you think about it, they are at more risk from the local population than vice versa.]
Photo 07
Here is a view of the gym. Every machine is full partitioned off floor to ceiling.
The caption here says that athletes are only allowed out of the village to go to essential places.
[There’s a big red cross through a restaurant here.]
[Only tangentially related but I saw on a wide show today that in order to combat an outbreak in South Korea, gyms in that country are not allowed to have their running machines set any faster than 6km/hour.]
Photo 08
You are allowed to take alcohol back to your own room.
However, they are not allowed to drink in communal spaces where multiple people gather.
[Will they really be able to enforce that?]
[BTW did you know that all the beds in the Olympic Village are made of cardboard cos it’s a green Olympics? Yes, the same type of cardboard beds as they started using lately at evacuation centers for typhoon and flood victims.]
Photo 09
With 9 days to the Olympics [as of yesterday], NHK is once again looking at the supposed “Bubble” that keeps the athletes and general population apart.
[Called a bubble because it only takes one prick to burst it?]
Photo 10
The chair of the Japan Doctors’ Association says that in a word, they are worried about the [the effectiveness/ practicality of] the Bubble.
Photo 11
Looking at the playbook for the media, for 14 days after entering the country, media people are not able to use public transport or go anywhere except to venues and places for which they have already submitted their movements in advance [the media center, etc.]
[I guess this means that after 14 days, media are not subject to the bubble. As we don’t know when each individual entered the country, calling people out becomes impossible?]
Photo 12
People who break these rules may have their accreditation revoked or even be thrown out of the country.
Photo 13
So to find out how the bubble is really holding up, NHK sent a TV crew and a translator to head down to the Olympic Media Center to accost foreign media people who are already here in the country.
Photo 14
Some people refused to be interviewed, citing the need to keep their distance, etc.
Photo 15
This guy agreed to be interviewed but said he was being careful with his movements – hotel to center and back and nothing else.
Photo 16
They asked these Dutch media guys whether they had read the playbook yet?
No, not yet, they said.
Photo 17
They found this Olympic-connected guy just wandering the streets!!
Photo 18
When did you arrive in the country?
“2 o’clock this morning.”
Photo 19
“I don’t have any work today so I thought I would come out and see what they have in this area.”
Photo 20
NHK caption: Sightseeing is not allowed within fourteen days of arrival.
Photo 21
“I’ve been couped up in the hotel the whole time so I thought I would just come out for a walk and stretch my legs.”
Photo 22
NHK: Do you want to find eat in this area?
“No, I wasn’t planning on doing that today.”
Photo 23
[Off he swans]
NHK caption: The playbook does not allow walking around.
Photo 24
One particular part of the playbook for media and staff that has been an issue of contention are the rules about dining (for the first 14 days of your stay).
Things that are allowed: Eating at venue cafeterias, eating in restaurants at your accommodations, and using room service or delivery serices.
Where this was not possible, the rules say you can go out to the convenience store or to get takeaway food from a restaurant. [This is different from a graphic a couple of weeks ago that said they were allowed to eat at restaurants as long as they did so in private booths.]
In these cases of going out to get food, the people are supposed to be accompanied by a supervisor or their movements monitored via GPS [I have mentioned before, and not seen anything to subsequently contradict my understanding, that in reality GPS will only be used for backtracing movements in a positive case, and not for tracking people in real time.]
As for the “accompanied by a supervisor” thing, this may be a security guard posted at the accommodations or an employee of the hotel.
Photo 25
According to the staff they interviewed at the Hearton Hotel, when an Olympic-related person decides to leave the premises,…
Photo 26
…the person designated as the “supervisor” is the guard on duty…
Photo 27
However, they merely monitor the people’s comings and goings, and don’t accompany them anywhere.
Photo 28
There are over 400 people staying at the hotel, including Olympic-related people.
Photo 29
But for the restaurant where they have breakfast, they use the same place as the general guests.
Photo 30
The Hearton guy says that most Olympic people opt for delivery for their evening meals though.
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Hearton guy: If an Olympic-person leaves the premises, “there is nothing we can do but believe their self-declaration [of where they are going and what they are going to do].”
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“If people just leave the hotel without saying anything at the front desk…”
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“…we can’t stop them.”
Photo 34
Next up: Volunteer uniforms and goods turning up on net [shopping websites]
[So the decision not to have spectators in the vast majority of venues meant that thousands of people who volunteered to help at the games (directing foot traffic outside and inside the stadium, etc.) were left in limbo and it is not clear whether they will be needed at all.
With the decision about whether to have spectators at the games coming so late though, in many cases the volunteers had already received their volunteer “kit” consisting of clothing, etc.
Having been stiffed on helping out at the games, some people turned to making a little money by selling their volunteer items on net shopping sites such as Yahoo Auction and Merukari.]
Photo 35
Here’s a set of Olympic volunteer goods being bid on in Yahoo Auction.
Photo 36
This person wrote in the selling description: “I was supposed to be an Olympic volunteer but because I have had to give that up, I am putting these goods up for sale.”
Photo 37
Olympic volunteer rules state that the selling or giving of goods to third parties is prohibited.
Photo 38
Up until the beginning of June, 10,000 volunteers had quit [ahem] voluntarily anyway. [Sexism scandal, unhappy with the covid situation, etc.]
–> they need to return their uniforms.
Photo 39
If they give them to third parties, there is the chance that they may be used nefariously in the execution of crimes, etc.
Photo 40
The organizing committee says it is extremely regrettable that people should be violating the rules in this way and are calling people to stop.
Photo 41
Yahoo Auction says if it finds any volunteer uniforms on its site, it will delete them.
Photo 42
US First Lady Doctor Jill Biden looks set to attend the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics.
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Last month, President Biden announced he would not be attending.
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But the White House are in the final stages of arranging for Dr. Biden to attend.
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[At both Suga’s visit to the White House and at the G20, the US has affirmed its support for Tokyo’s holding of the games.
Part of the background to this decision was, according to NHK:]
“With the rise of China in mind, US-Japan relations weigh more heavily than ever.”