kin

so the olympics are over and thankfully japan secured a medal just a few days before the end - breaking the image of riots in greater tokyo that I'd forecasted earlier in the week, mid-drought. the opening ceremony was tastefully arranged with typical italian flair - the props simple but well scaled.

the time difference made viewing difficult but the press had given generous air-time to several contenders who were now to feel the pressure of the whole nation upon them. it felt almost inevitable that they wouldn't deliver the goods just as the english press frequently imortalise their footballers before chewing them around and spitting them out - nhk et al had indeed 'pissed on their chips'.

I think japan did pretty well - coming close in quite a few disciplines. I was glad to see the cocky little snowboarder get absolutely hammered by the oppostion though. sometimes you have to learn a lesson - perhaps he's learnt it now and will come back to win but this time he deserved the thrashing.

just as in june when wimbledon is on and we all become tennis experts - I enjoyed critisising sports I knew nothing about. jesus though - the cross country skiing really looks like it hurts.

the thing that really threw me was on last wednesday and nhk news at 10 opening with 15 minutes of olympic news. the only issue was a lack medals. there was no big news, just the start of the ice skating. 1000 people dieing in the philippines seemed unworthy of being a headline. or so someone might assume. anyway - it's all over now and Arakawa is set to begin her new career endorsing cars, bags and lipstick and presumably guesting on every tv show for the next three months. definitely time to switch off!