translation: it s almost | like the olympics was taking place in the mother country. you can only watch it on television. the last couple of weeks have been a tale of two cities, two tokyos. there is the one behind the fence where there has been this amazing sport and tremendous success forjapan and the tokyo outside the fence, where most of the time, you wouldn t even have noticed that the olympics has been happening and the same contrast is true for the pandemic. inside the fence, daily testing meant things were kept under control but outside, the pandemic is now out of control. critics say the olympics has sucked away resources leaving the city without enough covid testing kits or vaccinations. it has left a scar on the japanese society, meaning people are divided and above all, the games left the economic debt, if you look at numbers in tokyo, it is just increasing.
out of the park, this sport loving family have spent much of the last two weeks glued to the telly. but even for them, watching the games on tv hasn t been an unmitigated joy. translation: | really | wanted to go and watch. it s totally different to watch on tv and actually being there to watch the games. translation: it s almost | like the olympics was taking place in another country. we can only watch it on tv. we felt the distance very much. the last two weeks have really been a tale of two cities, two tokyos. there s the one behind this fence, where there s been this amazing sport and tremendous success forjapan. and then there s the tokyo outside the fence, where most of the time you wouldn t even have noticed that the olympics has been going on. the same contrast is true for the pandemic. inside the fence, daily testing means things have been kept pretty well under control but outside, the pandemic is now out of control.