On Saturday I went to the Oi Hockey Stadium for venue training.

As far as I could tell most of what we do consists of standing in different places saying, “this way,” or in the case of earthquake or other disaster waving our hands and saying, “this way.”

We’re also supposed to report if we see banned things like knives, selfie sticks, or drones.

They love using acronyms like EVS for “event services.” I have no idea why they use English acronyms for stuff like that. Being acronym-challenged, I kept on asking other Japanese volunteers what they meant.

We took a tour and saw all the “pitches” (I was not the only volunteer to have never seen a hockey game before), and where all the restrooms, baby care stations, rest areas, the volunteers meal area (we get daily meal vouchers) and even the prayer tent were.

I didn’t realize the Tokyo Monorail had local and express trains and first ended up at Haneda Airport Terminal 3 before backtracking to Oi Keibajo Mae, where the race track and hockey stadium are. I now know that door to door from my house to Haneda Airport is 1 hour 15 minutes. One woman remembered me from Haneda Airport (I remember her too because it was just the two of us crossing over to the other platform to change trains and go back.) She also has a rambunctious dog who chases after motorcycles, so we had a nice chat.

There will be tight security going in (looks like airport security with screening gates and all.)

There were lots of nice, small open air vans for handicapped people and another one of our tasks is to guide people away from them if they come rolling by.

By popular demand, apparently, they shortened the daily schedule from 6:15 am to 3:15 pm to a bit more reasonable 7:00 am – 3 pm. We get a one hour lunch break and a few scattered 15 minute breaks as well.

According to the iPhone Health app, I walked over 15,000 steps.

Here’s a short video overview of the afternoon:

Below are a few photos from the day. If you want to see them all, including a nice panorama of a hockey pitch, please check out the complete album here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oXX8yE44Vpai3BqHA