BIGGEST, FASTEST, TALLEST... But Water Rationed In Olympic City

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30535, 2 September 1964, Page 19

BIGGEST, FASTEST, TALLEST... But Water Rationed In Olympic City

(Special Correspondent HJZP.A.) LONDON, September 1. Many visitors to the Olympic Games in Tokyo “the biggest, maddest, most modem city in the world” are in for the biggest surprise of their lives, says the “Daily Herald’s” correspondent. Tokyo, he says, boasts the world’s longest and fastest monorail system, the biggest underground railway, the fastest and most luxurious express trains, the tallest tower —and the lowest water supply of any city in the world.

“Right now, the people of Tokyo exist on a three-day maximum water supply, and you can imagine what this means in terms of hygiene. But nobody seems to care. It’s only as an after-thought that wells are being sunk furiously at the Olympic

village in time for the opening in October. “Hundreds of millions of pounds have been splashed on building facilities for the games, and most of these deserve the term ‘magnificent’: the 100,000-seat stadium, the 10,000-seat gymnasium, the swimming pool and even a special ‘marathon road.’ “The cycling velodrome has a 45-degree angle of camber on the track. But what does

gravity mean to the Japanese?" the correspondent asks. “More than 1000 workmen have died on this fantastic four-year building and engineering spree, falling off scaffolding into concrete mixers or getting buried alive beneath bulldozers.

"But —another paradox In the land of crazy contrasts—the majority of Tokyo’s citizens are apathetic about ‘Orimpikku,’ the nearest they can get to pronouncing ’Olympics.’ ” The correspondent also says: Four years of endless noise, dust, pot-holed roads and spiralling prices in the name of “Orimpikku” have left people sour. Empty Swimming Pool

The world’s most magnificent hotels now adorn the Tokyo landscape. But at the Otanlz hotel—l 7 stories, four basements—notices request guests to go easy on the water and not to dive Into the empty swimming pool. Nobody knows exactly what the accommodation situation is for Olympic visitors. Some hotels are overbooked, others underbooked. Many inns spent fortunes at the suggestion of the Government to spruce-up for foreign guests. They are regretting their haste: bookings have not come.

The Government hopes to gain lasting prestige by proving Japan’s ability to play international host. But it has become a case of “never have so many been made to suffer so much for so few.” Tokyo has had a “face-lift,” but weary citizens in the extensive slum areas would rather have seen the money spent on water supplies, sewerage systems, suburban roads, rubbish collection trucks, rodent and mosquito control and dozens of other amenities now denied them. £2 For A Beer

What will visitors find in the “new” Tokyo? The city’s great draw-card—night-life and naughty women—is pricing itself out of business. It costs a couple of pounds for a simple beer in any of the hundreds of attractive bars on the Ginza side-streets. In suburban “entertainment areas” the unwary can be given an outrageous bill and be beaten up by hoodlums if there is any argument. Night-clubs cost £2O upwards for an evening, and again the musclemen hold sway. But all must close at 11 p.m. and former all-night bars at midnight. The famous “Turkish Bath Houses” have been ordered to put peep-windows in room doors so that the occupants are made aware that they can be seen. But the law forgot to specify exactly where the windows should go, so the bright owners put them flush with the floor or high enough to require the use of a stool to see through them.