TSURIGASAKI SURFING BEACH, Chiba Prefecture — Imagine what it might have looked like, this pristine stretch of sand about 60 miles from Tokyo on Japan’s east coast. Imagine the party, the grandstands packed with revelers, everyone drinking and swaying and socially not distancing as surfing made a raucous Olympic debut.
This is what it did look like, in a rare instance when reality was different—no stands, no spectators and, alas, no alcohol—and yet altogether not much worse. There were still surfers, like the four Americans who competed here on Monday. There was a big screen set up near the ocean, close enough to catch the spray.