Olympic leftovers (2)

8/26/08 And all the sudden, it’s over. I join a busload of Japanese for the ride to Beijing Airport. I am a double foreigner – an American traveling together with Japanese in China – and it already feels like I am in Japan. For a month, I was in a completely different world from my usual: no wife and daughter, language practice and use all day long, surrounded by all things athletic and Olympian, navigating a new city full of surprises (and pains in the ass) rather than moving seamlessly through my home of 13 years, Tokyo...

All the familiar sights of the past month are drifting past – the small open space where we practiced staff fighting late at night, the subway station I got to know so well, the entrance to Renmin Daxue University, where I wondered what it might be like to be a teacher again in China. I spoke to three helmeted cyclists at a nearby corner – they had arrived just four days earlier for their first stint as English teachers and were already full of advice for me.

9/22/08 A rainy afternoon at home with no work, just what I needed. Almost a month back in Tokyo now and it has flown past and the entire crazy world of the Olympics seems so far away. And even now I remain hovering on the edges of my Tokyo life. Martial arts practice has been stellar. Work has been occasional. That had been my ideal life for about 12 years over here, until recently. Real life has caught up with me, if it has not sucked me in all the way. Well, I have some extra time this week. For now, more leftover Olympic pictures.
One from the marathon - I had to get up at 3 AM (once for the mens', once for the womens') to help the TV crews set up. That was the toughest venue - no room in the cabin to sit/work, lots of mosquitos outside, and horrendous toilets (and the ONE time I had stomach trouble all month in Beijing happened to be that morning...).
Another, just a ticket for those who never saw one.
Finally, a decoration outside the wrestling venue, which was one of the easiest to work at and which certainly had the best staff to work with.