July 24 falls exactly
two years before the opening of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. To mark the date, The Mainichi Newspapers, a Tokyo 2020 official partner, has opened a “Takebashi Virtual Stadium” at the Palaceside Building this week.
What is “virtual”? The place in the photo above is the first-basement concourse of the Palaceside Building (the “Stairway of Dreams” is visible in the back). A pool has appeared, and a young woman is about to dive… It is a trompe-l’oeil that uses a bit of optical illusion so you can take a three-dimensional-looking photo. Please look at the photo at right. Only a picture is painted on the floor, but if you photograph someone standing on the painted starting block from the spot circled in red be
low, in the direction of the arrow, you get an image like the photo above. Quite a sense of being there, isn’t it?
In the same way, the athletics start line looks like the photo at left.
Rest assured: you need not be young to enjoy it. A slightly tipsy gentleman on the podium looks like this (photo below left). Here too, the part circled in red in the photo below right is only a painting on the floor.
Come, everyone, feel like a medalist and snap away. Then share the photos on social media and help mark two years to go before Tokyo 2020. The hashtags are “#Tokyo2020,” “#あと2年” and “#毎日新聞社.”
There is also a corner where you appear in a Mainichi extra. The photo below is from the sports page of the Mainichi morning edition of the 24th. The model is Hanae Ito, assistant manager in the organizing committee’s strategic communications section and a two-time Olympian. When she visited on the 23rd, a photo of her posing in a special oversized extra-newspaper frame ran in the article. You can taste the feeling of appearing in the paper as a medalist.
In addition, in the elevator hall of the west core in front of The Mainichi Newspapers’ first-floor reception, life-size photos of the so-called “four heavenly kings of karate,” from whom gold medals are hoped — Kiyo Shimizu, Ryo Kiyuna, Ryutaro Araga and Ayumi Uekusa — leap into action with Mainichi CM character Hitomi Korenaga (photo at the end). Together with the corporate message on the floor, “Facts, straight. Connecting every day to the future,” the entrance has become a powerful space. Please take a look here as well.
In the free space beside the east first-floor entrance, panels also show Games information and photos of the torch relay from the previous Tokyo Olympics in 1964.
The event runs through August 31 (the panel display through the 20th). Please enjoy the trompe-l’oeil photos with your children.
