Should we even be here?
This will be an occasional series over the next few weeks, how could it not be? These are the Olympics that should have been held last year. Last year they were postponed because Covid cases were reaching daily heights in the low hundreds each day...this year, this past week in particular, the daily average has been over 1000.
Recently, I have been asked to write commentaries for The Conversation and The Interpreter (Lowy Institute) and several media interviews, mostly as an Australian in Tokyo at this time and what that perspective brings. It doesn't hurt that politics is my day job and let's face it, there is a lot of politics to digest. It does hurt that I have long been a sports fan (even played a few in earlier times) and that the Olympics are being held at all under the present circumstances. I feel for the athletes, I really do. I scored tickets to a couple of events too (women's hockey and rugby 7s, but not the surfing 😒). But I also recognise and share the frustration of many people here who don't want (rather, didn't want) the Olympics to go ahead. The costs, the risks, and for what? A keen observer of political protests, I would have liked to be out and about observing the many protests that have been going on around town...but I'm sticking to the pandemic rules, for now.
Japan was awarded the Olympics in 2013, and with a few years of candidate-campaigning prior to that, I feel my visits to Japan over the last decade or so, have had a distinct Olympic tinge to them. And now of course, with Brisbane winning the bid for 2032, if ever I get home, that will equate to some two decades of living in Olympic cities. The political scientist in me is wary...and perhaps by 2032, a little weary.
A secondary purpose of these posts is to get me back into writing mode. I won't be stuck as head of department forever (I hope) and I do want to get back into good writing habits. I have much to write.
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| The mini-cauldron, placed at Ariake, just near work |
On this, the first Sunday of the Olympics, officially opened on Friday night but with events commencing last Wednesday, I spent a fair bit of time watching the surfing, on an internet connection because this Olympics is being held with no spectators. We have been asked to watch the Olympics on telly (or other devices) instead. As a separate research project, I have been looking at surfing's introduction as an Olympic sport. I've travelled several times to the town where the venue is located, I've given two or three conference papers, I've invested quite a bit of time there. Now, with essentially a four day window of competition (with lay days for poor surf), I've spent time wondering whether I can break the current State of Emergency, and head out tomorrow, a rare meeting-free day, for research purposes. I need to write the concluding paragraphs to that article after all. But instead, I will probably stay home, wait until after the SoE, and look at the legacy post-Olympics for Ichinomiya.
Sports me has won out over academic me today. But there is so much to write, to consider, to reflect. I plan to be back tomorrow, or the next day, to tease out a few ideas.
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| A behind the scenes view of the topiary mascots at Ariake |
