Athletes at the Asian Games in Japan will have “a unique experience” staying on a cruise ship and in wooden containers, an organizing official said six months out from the event, but acknowledged there were concerns about the plan.
About half of the expected 15,000 athletes and officials will live in the eye-catching temporary accommodation during the Games, which are in Nagoya and the wider Aichi area from September 19 to October 4 – coinciding with the typhoon season in Japan.
The rest will stay in hotels, including in Tokyo, where swimming, diving and equestrian events are taking place.
Organizers say using the cruise ship and container units are cheaper than building a traditional athletes’ village, although they admit the unusual approach has raised eyebrows.
Kazuhiro Yagi, vice-secretary general of the Aichi-Nagoya Games organizing committee, said that the accommodation would offer “an experience that’s difficult to come by.”
Between 4,000 and 5,000 athletes and officials will stay on the Italian cruise ship Costa Serena, which will be docked at Nagoya Port during the Games.
The vessel, which features 571 cabins, seven swimming pools, eight restaurants and nine bars, is being chartered at a cost of about 4.5 billion yen (HK$220.8 million), said Yagi.
According to the official website, the ship has “an elegant, surprising, ironic and magnetic soul.”
It is a sister ship of the Costa Concordia, which sank off Tuscany in 2012, killing 32 people.
A further 2,000 athletes and officials will stay in wooden shipping container-style huts in Nagoya’s Garden Pier area.
Yagi says athletes will be assigned to a particular type of accommodation based on their sport, not by country.
He also says organizers will be ready to deal with Japan’s typhoon season.
“We don’t expect extremely large waves but we must be prepared for emergencies,” he said.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
