Postcard from Tokyo: How to soak in the highs and lows of a rain-hit Asian Games

TOKYO – Growing up, I was a fan of The Natural Disasters, a professional wrestling tag team comprising the duo Earthquake and Typhoon.

Never did I imagine how prescient my childhood obsession would be, and that decades later I would encounter nature’s version of the duo at separate major sports events in Tokyo.

At the pandemic-delayed Olympics in 2021, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake lasting up to three minutes occurred 40km off the coast of the Ibaraki prefecture in the wee hours of Aug 4.

Journalists covering the Games felt tremors more than 100km away in Tokyo.

When my friends asked, I told them I slept through it, joking that a deep sleeper like me would not have survived a more damaging quake.

Incredibly, five years on at the ongoing Asian Games, I unknowingly booked myself into a hotel that is a 100m sprint away from the APA Hotel & Resort Tokyo Bay Shiomi I stayed in during the Olympics.

And this time, I have been welcomed by Typhoon Dujuan, which in recent days has brought heavy rain and violent winds which has disrupted transportation and forced the closure of several tourist hotspots.

On a day of torrential downpour before the cyclone hit, China swept six out of seven golds – and four Games records – on Sept 20, the first day of the swimming competition at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, which was also an Olympic venue in 2021.

Gan Ching Hwee was also in her element as she delivered an unprecedented women’s 1,500m freestyle silver for Singapore.

Outside the arena, the pouring rain threw up a challenging 15-minute trek back to the hotel – few things make me more miserable than getting my shoes and socks wet.

Cue a series of hops, skips and jumps to avoid puddles in my path. 

The stares I got from passers-by soon gave way to chuckles and consternation as my umbrella flipped inside out, turning it into a makeshift bucket above my head.

Uplifted by the great sporting action I had witnessed earlier, and relieved that my shoes had miraculously stayed dry, I could see the funny side and even sent Telegram bubbles of my situation to my girlfriend back home.

I wasn’t yet singing in the rain, but I refused to be defeated by my umbrella, or the gloomy weather. Just like Chinese superstar Pan Zhanle.

As I stepped into my hotel lobby, I spotted Pan and an official, in windbreakers but with no brollies, hurriedly ducking into the building for a brief respite before returning to their accommodation down the street.

Retaining his Asiad 100m freestyle gold just an hour earlier by 0.04sec must have helped his mood, though his winning time of 47.61sec was also a significant 1.21sec off his world record of 46.40 set at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

At the mixed media zone after the morning’s heats, the 22-year-old former world champion was asked about his form – he did not even make the final at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore a year ago.

He said: “There were many changes for me last year, not just in my training, but also my fitness and my life.

“My world became different after winning Olympic gold. The way I live my life is no longer the same as I’m watched and followed by more people. It’s a good thing because I have gone from an unheralded youngster to where I am now.

“I’m still learning how to cope with such attention as I try to be better every year amid the changes... At the same time, I have to take care of myself so I can have no regrets in my swimming career.”

In interviews, some top Asian athletes can sometimes come across as bland and politically correct, but here was a young champion who gave honest answers about his struggles, while trying to find positives.

Pan’s attitude was a reminder that as much as one can make hay when the sun shines, it is also possible to make gains when it rains.

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David Lee is senior sports correspondent at The Straits Times, focusing on aquatics, badminton, basketball, cue sports, football and table tennis.