I doubt I’ll ever visit there, but I just read about Tokyo being awarded the 2020 Olympic games.
I don’t really have a very positive image of Tokyo when I think about it.
My perceptions, which are derived from books and movies:
It is crowded in a way that would make a Chicagoan nervous.
Everybody smokes cigarettes, with few restrictions.
English is rare, and most signs are in Japanese only.
The train system is fantastic, but impossible to learn for a foreigner.
It is a male dominated culture, women are still second class.
The weather is unbearably hot and humid, with a cold winter.
Most men work well over 40 hours a week.
A beer in a bar costs at least US $ 20. Food is also incredibly expensive. If you only speak English, it is impossible to find inexpensive noodle shops.
It is crowded in a way that would make a Chicagoan nervous.
It is crowded, yes, but in most places I’d say it’s about the same volume as New York
Everybody smokes cigarettes, with few restrictions.
Yeah, there’s a lot of smoking, unfortunately.
English is rare, and most signs are in Japanese only.
English on signs and merchandise is pretty common, and is generally understood much better than spoken
The train system is fantastic, but impossible to learn for a foreigner.
I’ve ridden their trains; it is not impossible for a foreigner to learn at all, just different.
It is a male dominated culture, women are still second class.
The culture is patriarchal, but you’d be surprised by how much authority women have
The weather is unbearably hot and humid, with a cold winter.
I find the weather to be almost exactly like NY, perhaps a little more humid in Summer. It’s cold in Winter, but I’d say moderately cold. Now if you want a cold Winter go to Hokkaido.
Most men work well over 40 hours a week.
True, and they do in the US as well.
A beer in a bar costs at least US $ 20. Food is also incredibly expensive. If you only speak English, it is impossible to find inexpensive noodle shops.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t drink, so I’m not up on the cost of alcoholic beverages in Japan.
It is absolutely possible to find inexpensive noodle (or ramen) shops in Tokyo; they’re all over the place. Now, if you said it is impossible to find a “good” ramen shop, well, you’d still be wrong. Hah!
I just visited Japan for the first time this year, spending 3 weeks in the country, including 1 week in Tokyo (close to Ueno Station) and 1 week in Osaka (close to Shin-Osaka Station). My comments:
The trains are easy to use, from the Shinkansen (bullet trains) to the subways. Most signs are in Japanese and English, and announcements on the Shinkansen and some other express trains are in Japanese and English. My wife and I bought a 2-week JR pass, and used Shin-Osaka and Ueno Stations as bases to visit a lot of other places, and never had any problems, except for a couple of local trains that were full of school students on their way to school – but they were always polite in letting a couple of foreigners board the train.
I’m sure that you can find beer selling for $20, just as you can in New York City, but I never found it. I think I paid around 500 yen for a beer in a restaurant, but mostly I bought beer at convenience stores, where it’s around 200 yen for a bottle. (That’s about $5 and $2 respectively.)
Convenience stores are everywhere, and are incredibly convenient. They are like mini-supermarkets, where you can buy almost anything you need, including bento (lunch boxes). You don’t need to speak any Japanese to buy stuff there, but you’ll quickly get used to the “Irasshaimase” (Welcome) as you walk in the door and the “Arigatou gozaimashite” (Thank you very much) after you have bought something.
I don’t know enough Japanese to be comfortable ordering a meal in the average restaurant, but we still managed to each in a few restaurants, often by pointing to pictures in the menu. (I do know enough Japanese to say “Biiru hitotsu kudasai” [One beer please], so that problem was averted.) So we mostly ate food from convenience stores, or ekiben (railway station lunch boxes) – but that gets you access to a great variety of authentic Japanese food at very reasonable prices.
As for the weather, we went in April/May, which is about a month too late for the sakura (cherry blossom), but still very pleasant. If you’re just worried about the weather, go in spring or autumn, and avoid the cold and the heat.
And as for the crowds, the week we spent in Tokyo happened to be Golden Week – a week with three public holidays, when a lot of Japanese take vacations. However, the worst crowds we saw were no worse than what we’ve seen in New York or Chicago.
Istanbul probably would have gotten it if the political situation in the area wasn’t so volatile. Who wants to make a bet on the situation in Turkey seven years out?
The OC wanted a place where they could be reasonably assured that security will be assured. They also didn’t want another Athens situation where, a year ahead of time they had to consider possible emergency alternates.
Replace “Japanese” with the appropriate language, but wouldn’t this be true for, oh, almost every country outside of the US and the British Commonwealth? I’m not sure why this is even on your list.
There is no way in freaking hell that I would do an Olympics in Tokyo. It is ungodly crowded at the best of times, adding 10s of thousands of people into the mix, fucking hell. Prices will mysterously go up, housing will be in shortage, traffic will be fucked up, mass transit will be slammed with people.
They also didn’t want a city or country to be bankrupted by the cost of staging the games, including building the necessary infrastructure. Tokyo already has plenty of hotels and mass transit and can afford the cost of the games. (Despite the recent financial problems, it’s still a very rich country.)
Compared to Istanbul and Madrid, Tokyo is the best choice. (Long term, I think the IOC needs to look at the insane costs of staging the games and see if there’s anything that can be done to reduce them.)
And it’s not true for Japan anyway. Here’s a picture of downtown Akihabara (one of the popular shopping districts in Tokyo). There’s a lot of English in those signs – aimed at a Japanese audience, not an English-speaking one – e.g., “Steins;Gate 2013.4.25 ON SALE”. (That’s announcing that the DVD of a popular anime in on sale, and the anime will just have Japanese, no English dubs or subs.)
Firstly, all Japanese learn English at school, but they can read and write it better than they can speak it. Secondly, English is fashionable in Japan, and that’s why that anime series has an English title. So, if you want to ask for something, it makes it easier if you write it in English, e.g., have a piece of paper with “2 people from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka” to hand to the seat-reservation person at the railway station: he/she will understand that, but may not understand your spoken English.
Presumably before the Games, they will install signs in French and English. And of course there will be thousands of volunteers to help the visitors get around.
And as for the availability of hotels, I think for one of the previous Games, they docked some cruise ships at the port, as sort of floating hotels.
I have no problems with this decision. I think Tokyo can handle an Olympics as well as any city can and there are no significant political issues involving choosing Japan as a host.
We’ve been to Tokyo twice. The city bends over backwards to welcome foreign tourists, especially English-speaking tourists, the food is as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be (and generally really good), the train system is complicated to grasp but easy to use with a Suica card, the beer’s about as much as it is here in Toronto, and if people work hard, they play hard too, with clubs, bars, shopping, entertainment and indefinable bits of awesome just about everywhere. Definitely worth a visit.
Hmm…let’s see - Russia has the upcoming, rabidly homophobic Winter Olympics coming up in a country known for bribes and corruption, with a leader who is certifiably nuts.
Then there is Brazil that has the upcoming Summer Olympics (plus World Cup soccer) and they are having huge problems with infrastructure, riots and unrest and a large poor population that is starting to become quite vocal.
And you are worried about Japan?!
I think Japan will be just fine - they know how to build things and get it done on time, so no problem with any venue nor Olympic village, etc. and I am sure they will have some amazing architectural treats in store for many of the new venues.
Japan will most likely see this as a huge opportunity to be on the world stage, and will go all out to make this a perfect event for foreigners and press - not only for future tourism, but their need to remain competitive in world trade.
Of course there will be glitches with higher prices during the Olympics - that is pretty much standard - law of supply and demand - do you think they still have cheap rooms in Las Vegas over New Year’s, when everybody and their brother is trying to book a room? Or do you think you can get a cheap room in New Orleans during Mardi Gras?
Japan has 7 years to get everything ready - and barring some natural disaster, my guess is they will be ready and waiting and happy to greet their foreign guests, and be ready for the world to view the entire event. From what I have heard, the Japanese are quite proud of their country and will be eager to make sure everything goes off without a hitch.
Hmm, I was never aware that there was a hatred towards Tokyo like this. I always thought it was supposed to be a world-class city just like London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, whatever. It doesn’t seem as skeevy as Beijing or Russia. And like Diceman said, the problems that you’re suggesting that will arise will be problems in any Olympic city.
I’m a little shocked that this is an issue. Granted, it’s just an issue for the OP and a couple of “yeah, what he said!” but still I am surprised it’s got even that much traction.