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Tokyo tests water sprinklers to combat heat at 2020 Olympics

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Look at all the trees and grass lining this street. What a waste. Construct a load of new buildings around this area, and have them open the doors while having the ACs on full-blast.

Plenty of oyajis in dodgy floral shirts and knocking off early on premium Friday will be more than glad to oversee it.

-7 ( +12 / -19 )

Hey maaaaaan, I paid all this money to get to the 20-20 Olympics only to get soaking wet through on the streeeeeeeeeeets man, one day a real storm will come. Coooooooooool.

NOT

-15 ( +5 / -20 )

@Listen, LOL. Yep. You’ll have to wear waterproofs to stay dry! Guess what? Waterproofs are.... HOT! Poor idea Hokkaido, there’s the answer.

-11 ( +6 / -17 )

You’ll have to wear waterproofs to stay dry!

They can't be that stupid right? I assume they will sprinkle the road BEFORE the match, as you can see almost daily and anywhere, when people sprinkle the streets with a garden-hose, which btw I find is a huge waste of water.

-6 ( +9 / -15 )

@Pap, they'd HAVE to continually sprinkle because if they don’t... ? With THAT sun beating down? You know what it’s like after a rain storm and THEN the sun comes out in August... SAUNA! Really bad idea, and as you say, massive waste of water.

-5 ( +11 / -16 )

This is by the Imperial Palace.  Is the intention to spray to keep ordinary pedestrians cool?  Or are they testing to see if this works for an event like the Marathon?

-5 ( +9 / -14 )

How about not holding the Olympics in August. Its as simple as that!

Move it to Oct like they did in 1964 Tokyo Olympics

3 ( +16 / -13 )

Sounds like inadequate planning and a face-saving exercise. Running street events in Tokyo at this time of year is just wrong.

2 ( +10 / -8 )

PS When the first marathon runner or walker or spectator dies, the whole event will end in farce.

2 ( +10 / -8 )

Waste of water. Waste of money. Waste of time.

Move it to October.

9 ( +17 / -8 )

you'd have to put an awning all over Tokyo to deflect the sun, then mist from the awning sides. Unless you can grow enough / implant enough trees in two years to line the streets which would be the most effecting without adding to humidity

Or y'know, hold it in October like the sane reasonable Japanese did in '64

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Even in the ill-fated 1940 Tokyo Olympics they planned for a September marathon.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

The Tokyo Olympic Committee is out in force today! So obvious. Don’t hold the Olympics in the torrid turmoil of a roasting summer!Hokkaido is beautiful, cool and perfect for sports! It’s OK to change things, if it improves things.

3 ( +10 / -7 )

If temps are in the mid-30's these sprinklers only increase the humidity. There is a one-word easy answer, shade! Put up some awnings and create covered walkways. That is the only way to reduce surface temperatures.

4 ( +10 / -6 )

The Tokyo Olympics, where a minus equals a plus. The more minuses, the more truth about the waste of water and deadly heat, the more White Elephants the Olympics leave behind. 2020, a clearly badly thought out endeavour. Get it moved to October, or Hokkaido.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

AFTER CLIM, "BRUMISATEURS" ARE THE BEST

°

It must be test with wind.

Sprinkler with wind is actually very efficient to cool the skin. Without it is a bit less.

Tokyo is an ocean city. The humidity won't change because of sprinklers. It is always high.

°

NCM

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

I've never understood why they didn't plan the Olympics for Tohoku, in some tsunami-devastated region that needs the economic boost mire than Tokyo does,

7 ( +9 / -2 )

The world was in recession at the time of bidding for the olympics and it was Ishihara's dream to win the bid. No other city in Japan submitted a bid . Now it's "Sprinkle Sprinkle Little Star" ~ Runners & Riders on the Tar ~

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Tokyo Olympic 2020 will be held at the sacrifices of athletes. The original plan was by the then Tokyo governor Ishihara as his political idea of revitalizing Tokyo and Japan using Olympics. Corrupt IOC approved the plan in 2016 without studying appropriateness of holding the summer Olympics in heat intense Tokyo. The last Olympic in Tokyo was held in cool October but recent summer Olympics are held generally in July and August when pro sports do not have big events. For IOC, broadcasting fees they get from TV are great and that is the reason the Olympic games came to be held avoiding prime seasons of pro sports. I commented before that it is strange that Japanese medias do not take up the issue and discuss seriously. I heard a rumor that advertising agencies and the government are putting pressures on them.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

I've never understood why they didn't plan the Olympics for Tohoku, in some tsunami-devastated region that needs the economic boost mire than Tokyo does,

Because politics. Also the Olympic Committee would've never accepted the proposal. Generally speaking they shy away from bids that aren't in one place. Considering the biggest city is Sendai and has roughly 1 million people/no space to actually build any of the facilities. The Rio olympics had 11,500 athletes performing, 85,000 security guards (even if you decrease that by 2/3 because Japan is pretty safe), and roughly 6 million tickets sold. Lets say, 10% of the sold tickets were actually the amount of people who came to watch. Thats still 600,000 people. Sendai doesnt have the facilities, man-power, space etc. to hold an event like that.

If it was Tohoku it would need to be in the middle of no-where, and then you'd get into the issue of access.

As much as I'd like to see the region get support, the reality is that the decision makers in Tokyo couldn't care less about Northern Japan ...

4 ( +5 / -1 )

At least it decreases air temperature by 2-2.5 degree C despite increase in humidity.

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/prohe1990/48/0/48_0_193/_pdf

0 ( +1 / -1 )

As it was cloudy when the experiment was conducted, a Tokyo official in charge of the experiment said, the results could be different if the weather is sunny.

A rocket scientist perhaps!!??!! Perhaps NOT!

1 ( +3 / -2 )

A bit underwhelming. How about cool pavement coatings? Is the technology ready & has it already been used elsewhere?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Wakarimasen I gave your question its 4th thumbs up. It's a reasonable question. This paragraph answers the question:

"The experiment, conducted on a pedestrian walkway along a road where competitive walking will be held during the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, showed sprinkling water would keep temperatures on the street surface up to around 5 C cooler than the surrounding air temperature."

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@Chris Case

°

It is about Nuclear Pollution and a zone where nobody is protected from tsunami.

The analysis to be able to conclude there is no danger is too costly, and nobody would have believed it. Green peace &Co would have protested all the way down to the last olympic day.

Olympic are here to say Tokyo is safe from Tohoku and make it forget for tourism purpose.

°

@ksteer

°

Olympic bills are paid by tourism, Tokyo have everything needed to pay the first bills and attract enough people to repay it back to the city. It is before everything a money invest matter because the cost is tremendous.

°

NCM

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It's a bit too late, but I wish they would stop cutting the trees all the way to their trunks in the fall--all because people complain about the leaves dropping. Hire the same tree cutters to pick up the leaves instead. I was walking along the street next to Yoyogi park yesterday and when I got where I could actually enter the park, it was amazing how much cooler it was being under the shade while still walking on the sidewalk. It seems that adding more humidity to hot concrete would just make it even more unbearable.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

How about just planting some trees along that sidewalk? Why does everything that involves bureaucrats trying to solve a problem in this country always seem to involve overly complicated, expensive solutions that are almost never necessary? (Answer, they have a company that wants to sell overly complicated, expensive systems).

7 ( +7 / -0 )

One reason the marathon is in central Tokyo is to show the world what a wonderful place it is, so please come and visit and spend lots of money.

Putting awnings all along the route to shade the road surface is not an option, as they would blot the view from the motor-cycle mounted cameras. I'm afraid the athletes will just have to endure the blazing sun.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Don’t we all know that water sprinkling reduces temperatures ?

Civil servants wasting taxpayers’ money.....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"...a Tokyo official in charge of the experiment said, the results could be different if the weather is sunny."

How much was this guy paid for it? I'll give the same obvious comment for half next time.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Never mind the heat. What about the lack of oxygen? Try running in Tokyo for ten minutes and if you're not breathing heavily by then, you must be carrying an oxygen bottle!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Land of the Lost.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I know, they should create a machine to control the weather over Tokyo.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

We all know how wet and clammy it gets after a rain shower on a hot day.

Next stupid idea!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

As it was cloudy when the experiment was conducted, a Tokyo official in charge of the experiment said, the results could be different if the weather is sunny.

This guy should be up for 'rocket scientist of the year' award.....

2 ( +3 / -1 )

This is a whole new level of desperate...

6 ( +7 / -1 )

More sprinklers for kids to play in. That's cool, but you sometimes get one or two running around in the buff and that might freak a few tourists out.

I'm not sure they have thought this through.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

great more mosquitoes means more illnesses.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Awnings over the sidewalks would give shade, without raising the humidity. They could even be made retractable, for when they are not wanted.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The 'organisers' (loosely termed) are obviously desperate.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Why can't the organizers admit that this idea of having the 2020 olympics in the summer in Japan is a really bad idea? They have 2 years to change the date to October just like they did in 64. They will have a hard time getting volunteers and ticket buyers if it's this hot again next year!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

No need to be negative in the comments! I think it’s a great idea - how refreshing that would be!

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

 hold it in October like the sane reasonable Japanese did in '64

October tends to be a busy time in Japan, being the midway point of the fiscal year. Lots of things going on. August is the slow, holiday season, so I guess this is why the Japanese organizers wanted it at this time.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Then they'll try what ? Spraying liquid nitrogen with a snow maker ?? Or bringing icebergs into Tokyo bay ?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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