Time Machine: Marveling at Tokyo in the run-up to the 2020 Olympics

This story originally ran in the Japanese newspaper Yukan Fuji in 2018.

TOKYO — It is something my wife and I look forward to: Every morning we walk along the glimmering waterfront at the north end of Tokyo Bay and inspect progress on the newly-opened Toyosu Fish Market in the shadow of the Rainbow Bridge as well as the 2020 Olympic Village under construction on the opposite side of the water. There and all over town you can feel the buzz. This city is on a roll. There is no place on earth either of us would rather be, and we have both been in a lot of different places. 

In the spring of 2009, we moved to a new hi-rise apartment building in the Toyosu area of eastern Tokyo, yet another bustling new quarter of commerce and leisure in the ever expanding metropolis built on reclaimed land. The change here is remarkable.