Sleepless Nights, Hotel Room Sprints, So Much 7-Eleven- What It’s Like to Cover the Tokyo Olympics

Was it really going to come to this? One day during the 14-day “soft” quarantine all Olympic reporters in Tokyo reporters had to observe—don’t ask me which day, it’s all a blur—I was going more than a little stir-crazy planted in a hotel-room chair, filing a story.

Under the regulations, I could only leave the room to travel to an Olympic venue to cover an event or to the press center. I could also go to a local convenience store—in my case, 7-Eleven—for 15 minutes to grab snacks or a pre-packaged meal. No walks around the vibrant Shinju…