On this brand-new version of My Tokyo, we hear from a US-based photographer and a French radio reporter about their experiences and recollections of overlaying the Summer season Olympic Video games and exploring town itself.
‘No higher occasion’
For Patrick Smith, a employees photographer with Getty Photos, he was “thrilled” to go on project to Tokyo this 12 months - having visited Japan earlier than and fallen in love with the nation.
“As an expert sports activities photographer, there’s no higher occasion than the Olympics,” he says, as he remembers capturing iconic pictures of athletes on the Japan Nationwide Stadium, in Tokyo.
“Being on the Tokyo 2020 Video games, within the Nationwide Stadium, overlaying the athletics, makes your coronary heart beat and it makes the athletes’ hearts beat,” Patrick explains.
“Taking pictures occasions just like the pole vault, the place an athlete is levitating throughout the air, seeing the enduring views of the stadium, the woodwork on the high, may be very historic and one thing that I’ll always remember.”
An ‘amusement park of actual life’
For Patrick, Tokyo is a mesmerising metropolis, which by no means fails to depart its mark on him.
“Getting back from the stadium each night time, from the athletics, you weren’t speaking to your colleagues. You had been looking the window,” he says.
“You had been seeing the Tokyo Tower, it seems just like the Eiffel Tower. It’s the Statue of Liberty, as in New York.”
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He likens Tokyo to being “on this amusement park of actual life, which is its magnificence.”
Patrick explains: “It’s the temples you get to go by. You will get off a practice and go to a temple one minute and be in a unique a part of town 10 steps later. It’s the historical past. It’s the brand new, it’s the previous.”
My coronary heart beats ‘in a contented method’
Again house in America, Patrick shares his picture recollections from Tokyo together with his two younger kids.
“After I talk about Tokyo to my kids, I inform them how secure it's. They’ll be welcomed with open arms, it doesn't matter what,” he says. “I inform them that the meals is wonderful.”
Patrick hopes to take his household to Tokyo to expertise all of the issues he’s loved.
“Returning to Tokyo is one thing that I hope occurs within the close to future,” he tells My Tokyo.
“Whether or not that’s for a serious sporting occasion or returning with my household. It’s simply someplace I do know that makes my coronary heart beat in a contented method.”
‘Joyful to see us’
For Olivier Pron, a senior sports activities reporter with Radio France Internationale (RFI) primarily based in Paris, he had by no means been to Tokyo earlier than. Though he was no stranger to the Olympics, having coated the Video games twice earlier than.
“The Japanese had been clearly completely satisfied to see us,” he tells My Tokyo, as he described the welcome he acquired on the sporting venues.
Temples of sport
For him, there have been two particular venues that caught his consideration.
“Two temples (of sport), I might keep in mind. The Budokan, as a result of whenever you come to Japan, you should be interested by judo. It’s the king sport. It’s a spot with a selected structure, that actually struck folks,” Olivier explains.
“Then… the sumo temple, which is named Kokugikan. That’s the place the boxing competitions had been held. I used to be imagining what sumo fights can be like on this place.”
Tokyo’s ‘iconic neighbourhood’
Olivier spent a lot of his time in Tokyo reporting on all of the motion from the Olympics. However he did handle to discover a few of this vibrant metropolis.
“Clearly, on the final day, we visited Shibuya, as a result of it’s the enduring neighbourhood of Tokyo. We had been there to see the a number of pedestrian crossings which might be identified all around the world,” he remembers.
“And for this tower, that’s positioned in Shibuya Scramble Sq., the place there’s the Sky commentary deck. It provides you a 360-degree view of Tokyo.”
Tokyo's legacy
As for the legacy of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics?
“All the things was completely organised. And so, that’s the legacy of the Tokyo Video games,” says Olivier.
“They've proven that in occasions of pandemic, you'll be able to organise the Video games. Possibly different nations wouldn’t have finished it, however Tokyo did it.”
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