Olympic flame arrives in Tokyo for no-spectator relay

Why the photos all blurry?

The torch relay was meant to build excitement for the Games, but it has been pulled from public roads in the capital to prevent crowds spreading the virus as infections rise.

I wonder why is then still being done. If the whole purpose was to show it to people then what is the reason to justify it now?

How do you call an spectacle without spectators?

What a farce and an embarrassment.

The "relay runners" should have some dignity and pull out of this vaudeville act.

While the government probably sees this as trying to make the best of a bad situation (for which they are half responsible), and the IOC doesn’t care as long as they get paid, most other people are just going to be shaking their heads and rolling their eyes at this PR disaster.

Ah yes, the ol’ “exhaustion” cough. Come to think of it, I heard a lot of people had this same exhaustion cough over the past year. Seems like its going around. The Olympics should fix it right up.

How do you call an spectacle without spectators?

”Unspectacular”?

If it wasn't for the fact that the taxpayer will be paying for this farce for next 30 years with increased taxes, I could just laugh at the whole thing and believe it's just a Monty Python sketch.

I could just laugh at the whole thing and believe it's just a Monty Python sketch.

The Pythons actually did a sketch called the “Silly Olympics”.

This is incredible. And well deserved for all the greed that's preceded it.

Look at those photos. They are pathetically ridiculous. Why even bother then? Just stop this madness. The real success of this virus is that it has made the world even stupider than it already was.

The gloomy background and dark clouds are apt representation of what is happening right now for this so called event/undokai

If the Olympics are not held Japan will lose billions of Yen.

The stands stood empty at the Komazawa Olympic Park stadium in the capital's southeastern suburbs, which was used in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The stands are empty because spectators were not allowed in. But one of the photos shows a nearby pedestrian bridge packed with onlookers.

Bet everyone wishes they'd bought more time and gone with what seemed to be the common sense option of 2022. Summer/winter Olympics in one hit. Asian rivals having to work together may have killed a few birds with one stone too. I guess it was complicated...but with the recent global flareups and countries like Indonesia copping an absolute pounding at the moment, it's fairly obvious now that we weren't ready. Still gunna watch though, as will the whole world stuck indoors, and we won't really know if it works or not until the action starts. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place ay!

Must be the angle of the photo and the requisite mask, but appears to be a very ‘smug’ look on Koike's face?

Why the photos all blurry?

Olympic committee doesn't have large enough budget for focus.

Isn’t Komazawa more a southwestern suburb?

Why the photos all blurry?

For the second and fourth ones, I’m guessing they was shot with a phone and then cropped very heavily.

This is embarrassing and pathetic, but it's going to be 100X worse with the Dragon Quest and Evangelion music playing to an empty stadium in a few days.

They should ask Mono to do it. Those guys are masters of melancholy.

If you are one of the people crammed onto that bridge and are not paid press you are part of the problem.

The horror and shame of Japanese greed in living colors.

Olympics united in emotion!

covid has entered the chat

The flame in that lanterm is barely burning. So tiny. A great symbolism on the domestic opinion about the olympics.

Those depressing and pitiful photos about sum things up...

Mono with a string section would be amazing. I would definitely have wanted to attend the opening ceremony if they were playing.

Well, I was being somewhat facetious back there. I mean I like Mono in small doses, but their music is just about the last thing you’d imagine for an opening ceremony when you want pizzazz and Genki level 100.

The whole thing can be defined only with one word,pathetic.

I think Covid already won the race.

Pathetic and sad.

"Hope lights our way"

Thankyou Governor Koike. We know how hard you work and how heartful you feel about Tokyo Olympic.

On Thursday night, Koike could not hide her disappointment at having to no fans at the Games.

"I feel heartbreaking grief about this decision," she said.

As we do too.

The torch relay should have never stated back up and should be discontinued seeing it was first done at the 1936 the idea was purely political.

Looks like there's a crowd to me. A small one, but a crowd no less.

Couldn't this whole "event" been done in an office with a green screen?

What would be the difference?

Is it me or there is a guy looking like Bach on the bridge? What a farce. Doing a billion-dollar event and cannot even hire a decent photograph. Gloomy cloud, no spectators, this just look sad. It would have been a thousand time better to postpone to next year and have a full olympics, not this quasi-olympics of mascarade.

I usually avoid using Wiki but this is so to the point and simple to understand, I figure it would be fine:

Regarding the Olympics and the torch relay:

Adolf Hitler saw the link with the ancient Games as the perfect way to illustrate his belief that classical Greece was an Aryan forerunner of the modern German Reich.

"The sportive, knightly battle awakens the best human characteristics. It doesn't separate, but unites the combatants in understanding and respect. It also helps to connect the countries in the spirit of peace. That's why the Olympic Flame should never die."

— Adolf Hitler, commenting on the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games

Now anyone saying we cannot let this one event affect the rest should look at the ancient symbol used by the Hindu, Chinese Japanese  "Manji" that was appropriate at the same time and now banned in many countries. Strange how the one thing from Asia was banned but the rest "rehabilitated".

The torch relay was meant to build excitement for the Games, but it has been pulled from public roads in the capital to prevent crowds spreading the virus as infections rise.

Virus does not spread outside along a road.　It is indoor, not outdoor where the danger is.

They just do not want to people gather.

Journalists will have difficult time to write articles during that games. Some will have to show and write how this event has been beautiful .

Sort of looks like the Paul Revere lamp.

Headline: "No-spectator relay"

Photo: Dozens of spectators watching from a crowded pedestrian bridge

Olympic flame arrives in Tokyo for no-spectator relay

I wasn't there, so didn't see it.

The picture is the perfect representation of Tokyo and Japan's situation. The governor of Tokyo who was probably hospitalized for a virus infection but hid it is smiling as she holds the Olympic torch for a spectator less event during a SOE.

The Olympics over the Japanese people!

Gov. Koike: " So, I just open this little panel, and blow as hard as I can, and KAZZAM !! the Olympics vanish in a puff of smoke"

How depressing to turn a major event into a farce.

If I had stayed in Japan my circumstances would have been dire.

To have stayed in Japan and to have had my circumstances impacted by it would have left me suicidal...

There is no hope left (good luck trying to find a video of the coughing Koike).

No interest.

Weather didn't offer the sympathy vote.

Oh my, it is wash out.

Friday's event gave a taste of the atmosphere that could await athletes at the opening ceremony, to be held at the National Stadium in the city center.

If this Olympics are going to have any chance success risks will have to be taken.

Fun and Games go hand in hand.

Let the people attend. Offer free masks, have a form of social distancing.

But don't let this spectacle become the legacy of this Tokyo Games.

15/20 % fully vaccinated?

Heads should be rolling around in the sawdust.

How exciting.

Jaysus even the weather was against it

Koike does at the 07:41:01 mark @TimSullivan 9:55pm: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igBz6exyOpU -

- “ (Good Luck trying to find a video of the coughing Koike). ” - “There is no hope left.”

With ‘determination and diligence’ friends, - ‘there is always “hope”.