I live in Yokohama, a city of 3.5 million people, and is part of the Greater Tokyo area. Total population is 38 million. I thought I'd start a Tokyo Olympics 2020 thread, because of the level of information that's needed to make the Olympics enjoyable and as economical as possible. I'll be creating a number of different posts, for different aspects of how / what / where / when. When: Friday 24th July 2020 - Sunday August 9th. It's exactly this time next year. Weather. It's the Summer Olympics, and it's very much summer in Japan. Although central Japan gets snow in winter, it's also hot and humid in summer Mean maximum temperature in late July /early August (last 10 years) is 31 degrees C (88F) Mean minimum temperature in late July /early August (last 10 years) is 24 degrees C (75F) This means that it is often still warm at night (for example, right now at 11pm, it's still 27.4 degrees C (81F)). It's been sunny for most of the day, but the humidity is currently 85%. Today's high was 33.7C (93F), lowest humidity was 64%. The mean maximum so far in August is 35.1 degrees C(95F). You can expect similar during the 2020 Olympics. There are a number of ways to cope with being out and about all day in the heat and humidity. - Stay hydrated. Vending machines dispense bottles of water, usually for around 110-120 yen (about $1.50 AUD, $1.00 USD, 0.93 EUR). Other drinks are usually around 150yen. Japan has 6 million vending machines, so they are everywhere, and they work!! - There are many, many convenience stores. There are often convenience stores within 50m of each other: 7-Eleven, Lawsons, Family Mart are the main ones, along with Sunkus & Mini Stop. They have international ATMs. - Fans. You can buy folding Japanese fans in many places. Some electronic stores give out larger plastic/paper fans for free. - Wipes. These are cooling wipes you can get at convenience stores. These are a must.The Gatsby "ice type" have cooling menthol. More later.
Location of Olympics venues. The main venues are located in the area around the Olympic Stadium, near Shinjuku & Yoyogi (Heritage Zone). The others in in the bayside area of Odaiba.(Tokyo Bay Zone). I don't think any venues are near to Tokyo Station. More info about this later. Accommodation near the venues will be expensive. I've heard that even Airbnb, big enough for 4 people, even at this early stage of booking, is around 35,000yen a night (about $450 AUD). The best strategy is to find places to stay within perhaps 1 hour by train to both areas (more info on this later).
Were staying Airbnb at the same place in April next year as we did this year in April and are paying nearly the same for 6 nights as we payed for 9 nights
And I guess you could double it for the Olympics.... Where is that located? It's a danger for those Airbnb people that if they expect to get the same money AFTER the Olympics as they do during, they may get nobody at all.
There will be pressure on accomodation leading up to the Olympics, service providers, delegates, reporters, tourists not going to Olympics but wanting to have Squizz at the goings on/developments... I reckon you may even get a few going a few months early to take in Cherry Blossoms as a once in a lifetime opportunity, then tourism activities then Olympics.
9 months ago I was considering signing up as an english speaking information volunteer, but all the positions were already filled with thousands in reserve if they need. seems like they'll have quite a few people on the ground to help.
Ok so for the first 7 days of August in Tokyo, we have: The mean maximum 1st-7th August is 34.8 degrees C(95F) The mean minimum 1st-7th August is 26.2 degrees C(79F) Even though there's been no rain at all in this period, yesterday had a minimum relative humidity of 60% (3pm), and a maximum of 87% (5am) ### Be prepared for hot steamy weather while outdoors!!! **Compare to Australia in January: City : mean max : mean min Sydney : 26C : 19C Melbourne: 26C : 14C Brisbane : 30C : 21C Adelaide : 29C : 17C Perth : 30C : 18C Hobart : 22C : 12C Canberra : 29C :14C
Train Travel: - Important for access to venues. - Important for access from accommodation to central Tokyo. - Currently, trains stop around or just after midnight. This may be different during the Olympics. The map shows the main JR (Japan Rail) lines. There are MANY other trains. - JR Yamanote is useful for a slow loop around central Tokyo, and to link between other JR lines and the Subway lines (Subway is extensive, but not shown) - Chuo Line (orange) is useful for fast access from the west of Tokyo. - Keihin-Tohoku Line, is useful for slow access from the north and south of Tokyo. - Tokaido(& Tokyo-Ueno) and Yokosuka Lines are useful for fast access mainly from further south of Tokyo. (but some provide services north) - Sobu Line is useful for slow access from the east. - Keikyu Line (not JR, not shown, but similar route to Tokaido & Yokosuka Line as far as Yokohama) also provides fast access from the south - The pink lines show other rail/subway that can use to get you to the bayside venues. Dotted lines are the two "zones". The blue circles show approx venues. The reason I think JR is more useful has to do with accommodation. In order to access reasonably priced lodgings, you need to be further out of central Tokyo, where subway is not much use, or is too slow. I will post later on accommodation (areas)
I highly recommend that people who will be in Japan for skiing late February - early March next season apply for Tokyo Marathon 2020. The General Entry will continue to be open until Friday, August 30 at 5:00 p.m. (JST). Except the Start / Finish, the Tokyo Marathon 2020 course is the same as the Tokyo Olympics course. The image below is the Tokyo Olympics Marathon course. The Start / Finish = Olympics Stadium(it's under construction now) and the only difference is the Start / Finish of Tokyo Marathon 2020 is Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, so you can run almost the same course 5 months before the Olympics
You probably won't hear much about it until it happens, but Australia has a real chance to get 2 medals in the new BMX freestyle event. There are only something like 12 athletes competing, with a limit of one per nation, except the top ranked nation which gets two spots. And we are currently top-ranked. Brandon Loupos, Jake Wallwork and Logan Martin could all get gold and two of them will probably get to go. Not sure how tickets etc are working, but if you're planning to go and are looking for spectacular events, that might be cheaper than the famous ones, keep an eye out. edit: and Rin Nakumura could win it for the host nation. Amazing young rider who's always smiling.
This is a good idea, because I've heard that tickets for popular events are expensive and hard to get, even now. And same with accommodation, you need to start looking for both now!!!
And the table tennis showdown between Japan and China is going to be EPIC. Men's final between big man Fan Zhendong, and the tiny wild child prodigy Harimoto Tomokazu, already a shoe-in.
Re the tickets...anyone who hasn’t used Co-sport for tickets before be warned. Effort and a half to get tix, hardly ever any available unless you buy a “package”, communication is horrendous and the mark up from gate price is ridiculous. But it’s really the only option.
Men's 4×100m relay is going to be epic as well. Japan won the silver medal at Rio Olympics 2016, beating the USA (Bolt's Jamaica won the gold). When Japan won the silver, Japan didn't have even a sub-10 seconds runner, but now Japan has 3 sub-10 seconds runners and all of them are very young and some of them are likely to break their personal bests by Tokyo Olympics. It's the most expensive ticket, though. I heard the ticket price is 130,000 Yen.
