Japan has hosted three Olympics in the past-1964 in Tokyo, 1972 in Sapporo, and 1998 in Nagano. The last two were the winter games. It was a big deal in 1964, because it was the first time that an Asian country hosted the games, and Japan was recovering from the devastation of WWII (more on that HERE). But this event put the country on the map. Japan requested to hold the events in October that year (because summer in Tokyo is so very bloody humid), and since that year, October 10th (day of the opening ceremony) has become a National Holiday. After the Tsunami of 2011, and the grim events the followed with Fukushima nuclear power plant, there has been many talks in the Japanese media about how the country might cease to exist if the Japanese people continued to lose faith. And much like how it helped back in 1964, people's hope for 2020 is riding on the success of the Olympics.
One of the biggest emotional damage I felt after the quake two years ago, was the notion that the foreign residents fled the country. And while there are still some concerns, I hope that people will go. We're certainly talking about it. Our daughter will be in middle school, which might be the perfect age. Japanese media is now talking a lot about pros and cons, and who is going to direct the opening ceremony, what entertainers get to host the events around the games, etc. As it's shown in the article posted above, in 1964, they had a young man who was born on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima to run the torch. That is hard to top. But in the meantime, I want to plant this in your head. You have seven years to save your money and think about it.
I hope to see you there.
