A very empty plane on the way back from Italy, with only 35 people in total on board
Hello everyone!
I cannot believe I’m now writing my 15th blog!
I’m now back in Tokyo after four months away and, following a 14 days quarantine, I was able to re-start full time in the office.
The procedures at Narita airport when I arrived were smooth enough, and I was able to leave after a negative Covid-19 saliva test and various documents check-ins taking about 90 minutes.
As for now Tokyo is still in a State of Emergency that will last until the 21st March, but I have to say that compared to what I’ve experienced in Italy, life here is pretty “normal” with all the shops open, restaurants closing at 8pm and quite a lot of masked people around.
Spring in Japan means SAKURA
When 2021 started we were all full of hope, but that didn’t last too long, at least for me. A year into the pandemic things are still very far from going back to normal and there’s still quite a lot of uncertainty about everything.
Unfortunately, the situation in Italy is still pretty bad, my region and hometown are now a Red Zone again with cases rising quite a lot, even if the vaccination campaign started in January. Luckily my parents and my sister had their 2-shot vaccination at the beginning of February and that is certainly a big relief.
March was definitely a tough month for the Equestrian world with Badminton cancelled, all sorts of scandal in the racing world and an EHV-1 (neurological form) outbreak with consequent cancellation of international – and for some countries, national - events for a month …… as if the situation was not already bad enough!
The Olympic & Paralympic Village
The situation at the office is C-R-A-Z-Y: things are ramping up, but at the same time not developing as Covid-19 policies and procedures have not been established yet, so we cannot confirm any plans for now.
The Competition Managers and the FEI have not been in Tokyo, and in the venues, for a whole year already and they will not be able to visit for at least another couple of months; we are trying to communicate often through virtual meetings, but is obviously not the same. Also, because of Japan’s time zone, having meetings with people in Europe means starting at 5pm or 6pm and finishing quite late.
The qualified Federations are also pushing to get the info they need to plan their logistics and operations but is just not possible to provide them the details they want for now, so is just a bit difficult and frustrating at the moment, but we must keep going and be ready with all the plans for when Covid-19 countermeasures will be published.
The second edition of the Playbooks will be published by April and hopefully they will bring some clarity. A decision on overseas spectators will be made by the end of March with the venue capacity decided by the end of April.
A sunny day with a nice view of Tokyo Skytree
In the meantime, the venues development is going on, with the remaining facilities being installed in Sea Forest cross country course by mid-April and the start of construction of the final warm up and gallop track starting in the Equestrian Park by the end of March. It will be so good to see everything completed and ready!
Fingers crossed for some news and updates soon!
Stay safe everyone!
カロラ
