2020 in 2021.

It's been a pretty surreal experience for the host city and for its residents.

No international tourism.

The streets have been pretty quiet throughout.

The Olympic athletes and the international press

are inside of a protective bubble.

There are no spectators at any of the venues.

There's a state of emergency.

But, it's not a lockdown.

There are some things to see and do in the city of Tokyo during the Olympics.

I'm at Nihonbashi right now.

Behind me are the Olympic rings.

There are several other monuments all around the city that have lit up

and brought some Olympic spirit.

Down the street there's an exhibit open to the public that I'm going to show you.

I'm going to be having my own Olympic event as well by climbing a mountain.

And this is what it was like to live through the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in summer 2021.

♬ Intro music ♬

Irrashaimase! (Welcome!)

Peter von Gomm: ONLY in Japan

John: Tonight is the closing ceremony for the Olympic Games, August 8.

That's the new National Stadium,

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium, where the closing ceremony and the events have been taking place

during a typhoon today,

which is a fitting ending for an unusual two weeks living in the host city at this time.

I came here during the opening ceremony to see how much of that I could really take in.

The Olympic Stadium sits on the exact spot as the 1964 National Stadium

and has become one of the symbols of Tokyo.

On arrival, in front of the Olympic Museum, I was surprised at how many other people

turned up to try to catch some of the feeling

with living in a host city.

(man speaking Japanese)

John: I'm just a short bicycle ride from the stadium and, like me,

most people here live locally and didn't have to travel very far.

Some media were here after completing their 14 day quarantine earlier this month.

Tokyo police officers did a good job reminding people to stay safe with masks and distancing.

A very hard, but necessary, task.

Media with passes trickled into the stadium checkpoints.

Hundreds of busses dropped off athletes and volunteers parking on

Aoyama Avenue outside the stadium towards the Imperial Palace.

There were a lot of busses.

I was in the very front with the hope of seeing some fireworks,

an Olympic torch runner, or even an athlete procession.

After 20 minutes, I caught one of three.

Spectators were banned from going inside the stadium

and this was as close as someone like me could get.

Woah that was awesome!

Some who came had the local broadcast going so we could see what was going on inside.

I did feel it was worth it to come and feel close

to an important moment in the history of my city.

The new National Stadium is just one of the many things

we could see and experience during the summer games.

Around Tokyo Bay at Odaiba the venues had no spectators

but in the center sat the Olympic cauldron.

Many with the international media broadcasted from the balcony of the Hilton hotel.

The Olympic rings in the bay offering the best skyline backdrop for on-air scenes.

We'll be back here shortly.

Passing Rainbow Bridge at Harumi is the athlete's village.

This is one of the things we could see from a distance.

A new tradition started recently in the last Olympics:

decorating the balconies and floors with the national flags, colors, and spirit.

I'd waited for years to see this area come to life

and despite the fortifications, locals could come

and take a look at our guests' residences inside of the bubble.

Many of Tokyo's bridges and towers were decked out in Olympic-colored LEDs.

The accent on the city skyline was impossible to miss,

especially the 634-meter high Tokyo Skytree.

At Asakusa, just in front of Sensoji Temple's Kaminarimon gate,

the games blended with Tokyo's historic neighborhood.

Up on the first deck we see the Olympic rings,

a sight I may never seen again in my lifetime.

Seeing this brought back a lot of emotion for those around for the 1964 games

and have witnessed the changes the city has gone through for the fast-paced half century.

Tokyo Tower was also in the spirit.

As was the Tsukiji Great Bridge,

the newest on the Sumida River.

Back in Odaiba, as the sun set, the Olympic rings lit up daily at 7pm.

Most days offered colors in the sky as Tokyo switched on the lights.

It's the perfect place for taking in the beauty of the city

twinkling on the other side of the bay.

A 15 minute walk from here sat the Olympic cauldron on display

burning clean hydrogen fuel.

A beautiful design with a lot of symbolism of unity.

It was quietly moved during the middle of the night

after Naomi Osaka lit it at the opening ceremony.

It was a popular attraction to visit for locals and visiting media.

It was sometimes a little crowded so signs telling people

to stay distant reminded us of the times we lived in.

I heard the best time to visit was in the middle of the night

when the cauldron stood all alone.

Shifting back to Nihonbashi where I opened this episode in the heart of the city.

The rings here were a chance to snap a selfie

but there's a lot more in this neighborhood than just this.

Down Chuo Avenue a little ways was the Olympic Agora exhibit.

Open and free to the public with an online reservation code to prevent overcrowding.

A 10 meter high gold medal in the entrance of the Mitsui Tower.

I'm not sure if it's real gold, but what do you think?

Olympic art was all over the area.

This called, Solidarity and Collaboration, with Makoto Tojiki in Fukutoku Garden.

The Tokyo Olympic Agora exhibit was a place I could capture some of the historic spirit to the games.

The torch room was incredible.

From the first one used in the 1896 games in Athens,

you can see not just the technology evolve

but each nation's culture in a symbol of the games.

The Tokyo 1964 torch looked like a sword, certainly the tallest.

Moscow 1980 looked like a space rocket to me.

Barcelona [1992, Atlanta] 1996, and Sydney 2000 [Correction from audio]

Tokyo 2020 torch was sleek.

Cherry blossom petal shape on the top.,

Clothing from the recent opening ceremonies.

Just before the medal room dating back to the first one.

The inaugural games in Athens gave out a silver medal with an olive branch.

Copper medals and a laurel branch to the runner up.

No gold.

The 1900 Olympics is unique in being the only Olympic games to feature rectangular medals.

The guild silver medal looked like gold.

Not all sports received medals.

The record books corrected this later with the top three athletes being recognized.

St Louis medals in 1904.

Berlin 1936.

The medals were larger.

When I looked at the gold, I got goosebumps as an alumni of the Ohio State University

knowing Jesse Owens traveled here to compete in Nazi Germany

winning many of these.

A great scene in sports history when German long jumper Luz Long shook Owens' hand

and patted him on the back after his defeat.

A very historically significant gesture given the times the world was in.

Owens was later quoted saying,

"It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler.

"I would melt down all the medals and cup I have and they wouldn't be a plating on

"the 24 carat friendship that I felt for Luz Long at that moment."

The medals got larger and larger.

Not made of pure gold, silver, and bronze, but its value:

a symbol of the achievement on the world largest stage.

Each medal set highlighting the times we lived in

and the culture of the host city.

The Tokyo 2020 medals are beautiful.

The games' logo immortalized on the silver and bronze.

The gold plating made from gold recycled electronic parts.

Central Tokyo wasn't the only place to see the rings.

There was one on the top of a mountain in Tokyo's countryside.

It's now 4:37.

I'm going to ride the Chuo line all the way to Mt. Takao.

This is my Olympic moment.

You can see the light is starting to come up.

The sun is coming up.

This is why it's called, the land of the rising sun.

Let's board this train.

This is the first train on the line to depart.

Almost empty. A way to stay safe and avoid the crowds but

also avoid Tokyo's horrendous humidity and sun at midday.

There's nobody here. I love this.

Ah, so I'm going to hike to the top

Get to those Olympic rings.

Again this is my... these are my Olympics right here.

I have to hike up and get to those rings before the crowds come.

I'm gonna come down by cable car so this should be pretty interesting.

Couple of hours of hiking.

Mt Takao is the most hiked mountain in the world.

With over 3 million climbers, it's not a hard one to summit.

The air was cool and fresh here.

Lower humidity than in the city.

The sounds of summer all around me.

Relaxing, except when it got steep.

Those wind chimes made passing through Takao-san Yakuoin temple really nice.

(Sound of wind chimes)

The sounds cool you down.

(♫ Dramatic music ♫)

(♫ Heroic music ♫)

It was a good feeling to get to the top, reach my goal.

A reminder that Tokyo is more than just the city.

It's a prefecture that goes from the Pacific islands to the mountains.

So these are the Olympic rings of Mt Takao, 599 meters up.

It's pretty special to see these, and if you look through the center of it

you get a nice view of Mt Fuji.

(♫ Heroic music ♫)

The cable car was also in the Olympic spirit.

It climbs 271 meters in 6 minutes at 31.18 degrees, making it the steepest cable car in Japan.

Back in the city, one of the places we could all visit was the Tokyo 2020 official Olympics store.

There were many around the city.

Mascots Miraitowa and Someity were on nearly everything.

Some of the products I saw were certainly only in Japan

reflecting the culture of the host city.

Did anything here catch your eye?

Let me know in the comments below.

One event many Tokyoites could attend happened in the sky.

Blue Impulse, an aerobatic demonstration team, of the Japan's air self defense force

did a fly by through the city with Olympic-colored smoke

making the rings above the stadium.

They did this for the Paralympics too.

It was possible to see some of the visiting athletes despite the bubble around them.

Busses constantly departed the venue, shuttling them around the city.

On the corner of Harumi and Ariake, you can see the most busses

and even get a wave!

Welcome to Tokyo!

Some locals came out to give their support,

including this man out daily.

"Good morning athletes

"Even if you don't get a medal, you're still the best.

"So believe in yourself."

This man impressed a lot of athletes

and yours truly who lives just down the street from here.

John: Amanda, who's visiting Japan, and one of the first visitors I've managed to see

in a very long time, who's traveling from Miami.

She's a reporter and .....

I met up with a friend who came to Tokyo to report on the games sharing her unique experience here.

Amanda: Coming to Japan in the past it was... you just go right in.

But this time, because of the pandemic and all of the restrictions,

we had to take two negative tests before even arriving

in Japan so

72 hours and 48 hours before, and

then at the airport it was a long process.

About 3 hours because we also had to get tested

and once you proved you were negative, then you can enter this country.

So it was very, very, long process and then once in Japan

also we had to get tested every single day.

Put our information, our temperature, in a health reporting app

and also a contact tracing app

so pretty extensive.

The hardest part was actually being a journalist

trying to bring stories about Japan