TOKYO —
At 8 p.m., the bright billboards in Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya district went dark. A large truck with red and white lettering drove past, reminding people a state of emergency was in effect. No one paid much attention.
At a nearby smoke-filled bar, servers squeezed between a packed crowd of tipsy, mostly unmasked patrons. The screens were tuned to the kickoff of the all-important Olympic soccer semifinals between Japan and Spain. As the teams took the field, bar-goers got ready to toast the goals, drown the losses and drink to everything in between.
This has been a surreal Olympics: spectator-less and entangled in myriad pandemic-related restrictions. They were also supposed to be dry. With the country on the cusp of a fifth wave of COVID-19 cases, Tokyo and surrounding areas suspended alcohol service and ordered restaurants to be shuttered by 8 as part of a state of emergency.