We are only two hours ahead of Tokyo, so a pretty reasonable timezone for viewing the 2020 Olympics here in July 2021. I turned on the TV and there was dancing in Tokyo. I left it on while I poked my phone on the couch. The dancing and lights show was kind of interesting. But it didn't completely grab my attention until the teams started walking in.
In the background, they were playing Final Fantasy IV battle victory music. From the 1990s. From my teenage Final Fantasy video game playing years. I called Tim -- "They're walking out to video game music!" He came in just to see, and then couldn't leave. It was the costumes. The costumes from all the different countries. And trying to remember where a particular country was located.
There were a lot of countries whose costumes were not embarrassing. Australia, for example, was fine. Not embarrassing. Probably comfortable. Described by one news site as "Girl scout chic."
Not Italy. Italy's costume was bad. Pizza bellies. Very embarrassing. I feel sorry for all their athletes.
Latvia also got to wear plastic bags over tin foil. Not really a great look.
To my surprise, I kind of loved the burnt orange jumpsuits of the Netherlands. I would probably wear that.
After Tim and I had been sitting there for about half an hour fascinated by countries and costumes and video game background music, Jonathan walked in and said he was going to bed. And paused. And then within the next half hour, he was sitting on the couch with us and wondering out loud if he should go get the globe out of his bedroom to try to identify all the smaller countries.
We forced ourselves to turn it off after Japan entered the stadium last. The ceremony continued, but it was 11.30pm, and we just didn't have the stamina.
But now, twelve hours later, I still want to get myself one of those red and white robes worn by the women from Palestine.
