Japan girds for a surreal Olympics, and questions are plenty
TOKYO (AP) - After a yearlong 延期する and months of 手渡す-wringing that rippled across a pandemic-inflected world, a Summer Games unlike any other is at 手渡す. It's an Olympics, sure, but also, in a very real way, something やめる different.
No foreign fans. No 地元の 出席 in Tokyo-area 発生地s. A 気が進まない populace navigating a 殺到する of ウイルス 事例／患者s まっただ中に a still-限られた／立憲的な ワクチン接種 （選挙などの）運動をする. 競技者s and their 側近s 限定するd to a quasi-泡, under 脅し of 国外追放. 政府 minders and 監視するing apps trying - in theory, at least - to 跡をつける 訪問者s´ every move. Alcohol curtailed or banned. Cultural 交流s, the 肉親，親類d that 力／強力にする the on-the-ground energy of most Games, 完全に absent.
And running like an electric 現在の through it all: the inescapable knowledge of the 苦しむing and sense of 排水（気）量 that COVID-19 has 勧めるd in, both here and around the world.
All 調印するs point to an utterly surreal and atomized Games, one that will divide Japan into two worlds during the month of Olympics and Paralympics 競争.
On one 味方する, most of Japan´s 大部分は unvaccinated, ますます resentful populace will continue 兵士ing on through the worst pandemic to 攻撃する，衝突する the globe in a century, almost 完全に separated from the spectacle of the Tokyo Games aside from what they see on TV. Illness and 回復, work and play, both curtailed by strict ウイルス 制限s: Life, such as it is, will go on here.
一方／合間, in 大規模な (and massively expensive) locked-負かす／撃墜する stadiums, vaccinated 最高の-競技者s, and the legions of reporters, IOC 公式の／役人s, volunteers and handlers that make the Games go, will do their best to concentrate on sports served up to a rapt and remote audience of billions.
A TV カメラマン sits beside empty 観客s' seats during an 運動競技のs 実験（する） event for Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games at the 国家の Stadium, in Tokyo, Japan, Sunday, May 9, 2021. Tens of thousands of visiting 競技者s, 公式の／役人s and マスコミ are descending on Japan for a Summer Olympics unlike any other. There will be no foreign fans, no 地元の fans in Tokyo-area 発生地s. A 殺到する of ウイルス 事例／患者s has led to yet another 明言する／公表する of 緊急. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Since the pandemic 取り消すd the 初めは scheduled 見解／翻訳／版 in 2020, the Japanese マスコミ have been obsessed with the Games. Will they really happen? If so, what will they look like? And the endlessly fascinating - shocking, really, to many here - prospect of 行う／開催する／段階ing an Olympics during what can seem like a slow-動議 国家の 災害 has permeated the society nearly as 完全に as the ウイルス.
"The mindset that the Olympics can be 押し進めるd through by 軍隊 and that everyone should obey the order has 招待するd this mess," the Asahi newspaper said in a 最近の 編集（者）の. IOC and Japanese 公式の／役人s "should learn that their absurdity has 深くするd the public 不信 in the Olympics."
Of course, it's too 早期に to 予報する what, 正確に／まさに, will happen when these cross-現在のs converge during the Games, as about 15,000 競技者s and, by some 見積（る）s, nearly 70,000 公式の／役人s, マスコミ and other 関係者s 挿入する themselves into the flow of Tokyo life in sequestered and 限られた／立憲的な, yet ubiquitous, ways.
Will the 普通は hospitable Japanese people warm to the 訪問者s or become ますます infuriated as they watch fully vaccinated guests enjoy freedoms they 港／避難所´t experienced since 早期に 2020? Will the Olympians and others play by the 支配するs meant to 保護する the country they´re visiting? Will they bring in variants that will spread through Japan? Will the 成果／努力 to vanquish the coronavirus be 妨げるd?
One thing seems 確かな : These games will have far いっそう少なく of what the world has come to 推定する／予想する from the Olympics, with its attractive mixture of human 競争 at the highest level まっただ中に 祝賀s and cultural 交流s on the sidelines by fans, 競技者s and 地元の people.
Usually, the Olympics are a vibrant time - a two-week party for a host city eager to show the world its charms. They teem with tourists and all the fun that an exotic 地元の and 利益／興味ing 訪問者s can bring. This go-一連の会議、交渉／完成する. though, will be 厳密に choreographed for TV, with the skeptical people of Japan 大部分は 孤立するd as yet another 明言する／公表する of 緊急 places more 強制s on their daily lives.
The story that foreign 訪問者s 焦点（を合わせる） on for these Games will also be very different from the reality on the nation´s streets.
Barring 大災害, the IOC, 地元の newspapers (many of whi ch are also sponsors), Japanese TV, and 権利s 支えるもの／所有者s like NBC will likely be 統一するd in their message: Just getting through will be cast as a 勝利.
Not many visiting 新聞記者／雑誌記者s, however, will ぐずぐず残る in ICUs or chase 負かす／撃墜する interviews with angry 居住（者）s who feel these Games were hoisted の上に the nation so that the IOC could collect its billions in TV money.
More likely, there will be plenty of made-for-TV images of a 小旅行する-調書をとる／予約する 見解／翻訳／版 of Japan, one that mixes 発射s of 古代の history, tradition and natural beauty with a high-tech, futuristic sensibility: Think of a sleek, silver 弾丸 train, for instance, streaking past a snow-capped 開始する Fuji. A reality, in other words, riddled with 平易な-to-digest cliches and predictable 設立するing 発射s.
As Tokyo grapples in coming weeks with the intrinsic oddness of these pandemic Olympics, the disconnect between sports and sickness, rhetoric and reality, 訪問者 and 地元の will be hard to 行方不明になる for many here.
Just how a 気が進まない Japan will 天候 a high-危険 実験 that might come to define the coronavirus pandemic in 未来 years, however, must wait until the 訪問者s pack up and go home. Only then will the true price that the host nation must 支払う／賃金 for these Surreal Games come into 焦点（を合わせる）.
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Foster Klug, the AP's news director for Japan, the Koreas, Australia and the South 太平洋の, has covered Asia since 2005 and is based in Tokyo. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/APKlug
FILE - In this April 22, 2021, とじ込み／提出する photo, Japan's women 国家の team 候補者s try out a match in the 操作の 実験（する） event of Rugby in 準備 for the Tokyo 2020 オリンピック at empty Tokyo Stadium, in Tokyo. Tens of thousands of visiting 競技者s, 公式の／役人s and マスコミ are descending on Japan for a Summer Olympics unlike any other. There will be no foreign fans, no 地元の fans in Tokyo-area 発生地s. A 殺到する of ウイルス 事例／患者s has led to yet another 明言する／公表する of 緊急.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, とじ込み／提出する)
A man wearing a 直面する mask walks past a restaurant in the evening in Tokyo, Friday, July 9, 2021. On Monday, July 12, another 明言する／公表する of 緊急 starts in Japan's 資本／首都, where the Olympic and Paralympic Games' 開会式 will be held in いっそう少なく than two weeks. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
People walk around before getting into a restaurant/妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 in Tokyo on Friday, July 9, 2021. Tens of thousands of visiting 競技者s, 公式の／役人s and マスコミ are descending on Japan for a Summer Olympics unlike any other. There will be no foreign fans, no 地元の fans in Tokyo-area 発生地s. A 殺到する of ウイルス 事例／患者s has led to yet another 明言する／公表する of 緊急. And a 地元の ワクチン接種 （選挙などの）運動をする is struggling to keep up.(AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
FILE - In this June 30, 2021, とじ込み／提出する photo, 地元の 居住（者）s over 40 years old 残り／休憩（する） after receiving their first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 ワクチン 発射 at a ワクチン接種 中心 in the コンビナート／複合体 of the Tokyo Skytree in Tokyo. Tens of thousands of visiting 競技者s, 公式の／役人s and マスコミ are descending on Japan for a Summer Olympics unlike any other. There will be no foreign fans, no 地元の fans in Tokyo-area 発生地s. A 殺到する of ウイルス 事例／患者s has led to yet another 明言する／公表する of 緊急. And a 地元の ワクチン接種 （選挙などの）運動をする is struggling to keep up.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, とじ込み／提出する)
FILE- In this May 14, 2021, とじ込み／提出する photo, still and TV photographers wait for an award 儀式 after skateboarders 完全にするd a 実験（する） event 始める，決める in 準備 for the オリンピック, which has been 繰り延べるd to start in July, in Tokyo on Friday, May 14, 2021. Tens of thousands of visiting 競技者s, 公式の／役人s and マスコミ are descending on Japan for a Summer Olympics unlike any other. There will be no foreign fans, no 地元の fans in Tokyo-area 発生地s. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, とじ込み／提出する)
FILE - In this June 20, 2021, とじ込み／提出する photo, a road at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Village is seen, in Tokyo. Tens of thousands of visiting 競技者s, 公式の／役人s and マスコミ are descending on Japan for a Summer Olympics unlike any other. There will be no foreign fans, no 地元の fans in Tokyo-area 発生地s. A 殺到する of ウイルス 事例／患者s has led to yet another 明言する／公表する of 緊急.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, とじ込み／提出する)
FILE - In this July 1, 2021, とじ込み／提出する photo, 公式の／役人s of Tokyo 2020 オリンピック guide Ireland's 競技者s on their arrival at Narita international airport in Narita, east of Tokyo. Tens of thousands of visiting 競技者s, 公式の／役人s and マスコミ are descending on Japan for a Summer Olympics unlike any other. There will be no foreign fans, no 地元の fans in Tokyo-area 発生地s. A 殺到する of ウイルス 事例／患者s has led to yet another 明言する／公表する of 緊急. (Kyodo News 経由で AP, とじ込み／提出する)
