October 28 marked 1,000 days to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and The Mainichi Newspapers is holding commemorative events at the Palaceside Building as well.
Following last week’s “national-flag decoration” of the 206 IOC member countries and territories on the south side of the building, an “Olympic news-photo exhibition” of Rio de Janeiro has also begun.
The venue is the atrium of the central concourse on the first floor and first basement. Five large banners printed with photographs hang from the first-floor ceiling (photo above), and on the first-base
ment passage center 29 photos are shown on panels (photo at right).
The center banner is the large photo (2 m wide, 3 m high) “Even Bolt was astonished,” which won the 2017 Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association Award; two 1.5×2 m banners hang on each side. They are sequential shots of the men’s 4×100 m relay at Rio, Japan’s first silver. The main photo catches anchor Asuka Cambridge’s run as Usain Bolt glances over with an “I can’t believe it” look. The other four are first-leg Ryota Yamagata, second-leg Shota Iizuka, third-leg Yoshihide Kiryu, and Cambridge at the finish.
The first-basement panels recall Rio’s emotion in gymnastics, badminton, tennis, table tennis, wrestling, judo, and Paralympic wheelchair basketball and blind football. The show runs through November 11. The building will open its doors on November 3 and 5, normally closed days, so you can see it. Hours are weekdays 10:00–21:00, weekends and holidays 10:00–18:00. Admission is free. (On November 3 and 5 arcade restaurants are in principle closed.)
As for the south-side “national-flag decoration,” all flags were rolled up on the 29th ahead of a typhoon (photo below). They will be unfurled again depending on the wind. The flags stay up through November 5.
