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From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow
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Nagano residents reluctant to part with Olympic fanfare
True, the Olympics and citizens of Nagano didn't fall in love with each other at first sight. The city showed little euphoria about the event before the Games came.
But now that the Olympic circus has jazzed up this once sleepy city deep in the Japan Alps, many locals are reluctant to let it go.
''I think the Games are a great experience for Nagano. It's become tangible for young people that there is a world out there,'' said Yumiko Fukuyama, a woman in her seventies.
''Life without all these visitors will be so dull. Nagano will sink back into its quiet life,'' said Tomomi Kobayashi, 20, a newly graduated student who has been delivering ''extras'' that have poured out from local dailies to chronicle the world records achieved and the medals won during the games.
The 18th Winter Olympics, the third Olympics in Japan and the first since the Sapporo Winter Games in 1972, has left its mark on this city of 360,000.
The city now boasts a new railway station, with high-speed train service that has cut travel time to Tokyo from about three hours to just 79 minutes.
The roads around Nagano have been widened. Newly built, state-of-the-art sport facilities dot the city.
With more than a million visitors -- many from overseas -- expected to call before the flames in the Olympic cauldron are extinguished Sunday, Nagano residents are finding it emotionally hard to adjust after the city's exposure to the world.
Shigeo Bando, a retired prefectural government employee who sports a dark tan acquired in outdoor spectator stands, said he enjoyed the ''internationalized atmosphere, the liveliness. I'm afraid that will go away with the Olympics.''
Bando said he would like to see the Games continue for another two weeks, adding that the Olympics has given him a different perspective on foreigners.
''I was at the M-Wave speed-skating arena when (Hiroyasu) Shimizu won the gold medal in the 500-meters in Olympic record time. There was a group of five, six foreigners who congratulated me, shaking my hand,'' he said.
''Japanese would never have done that if an athlete from another country had won.''
Some residents in this car-dependent city even have developed a sense of humor about the severe traffic restrictions that were instituted to prevent gridlock during the Games.
Housewife Fumi Yamanoi said riding buses once again instead of driving the family car has been less troublesome than expected, and it ''felt like my personal Olympic adventure.''
To many, however, the adventure has consisted of long hours of work that have come with increased business.
''I've had enough, work-wise'' bus driver Koichi Yamazaki said, fatigue written all over his face.
Midori Kubota, who runs a noodle restaurant with her husband, echoed that sentiment. She said she won't want to see the Olympic experience end, but longs for a break after working two months virtually nonstop.
Nagano's hotels, souvenir shops and other tourism-related businesses have been filled with a sea of humanity, day after day.
But making money is not everything to people like Mitsuro Komura, who turned his cloth and sewing accessory store into a makeshift souvenir shop selling national flags and other Olympic paraphernalia.
''I don't know whether we actually make profits, but we have all these athletes come in. It's really exciting,'' Komura said, pointing at a rich haul of pins and autographs he has collected on his yellow-and-blue rain jacket.
Even the policeman on the beat is not immune to the festive atmosphere that fills the Olympic city. Pedestrians jaywalk under the nose of police officers, and rowdy beer parties that spill onto the sidewalk get only a gentle slap on the wrist from police.
Mitsuhiro Nagai, whose downtown bar Thirtys is packed beyond capacity with a rowdy, predominantly foreign crowd night after night, said police warn him daily about patrons who make noise while drinking outside.
But ''they are very lenient. In ordinary times, I would have long ago been arrested,'' he said of the police. (Kyodo News)
No part of the article, photographs, or illustrations presented here may be printed or used without permission.
Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun