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OLYMPICS

She’s paying ?1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics

Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ?1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ?1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games. | Courtesy of Mai Tarumi

By Mai Yoshikawa
Staff writer

Jul 14, 2024

Mai Tarumi is paying to be unpaid this summer: She’s volunteering at the Paris Olympics.

While numerous news and travel websites have suggested that being a volunteer is a way to attend the Games for “free,” that surely doesn’t apply to international volunteers like Tarumi.

“It’s not cheap,” the 36-year-old Ibaraki Prefecture resident told The Japan Times. “The high hotel rates made me hesitant to go.”

Amid the heat and humidity in Japan, a good night’s sleep is growing increasingly elusive without the heavy use of air conditioning.

Summer has arrived in Japan and so have hot sleepless nights

By Tomoko Otake

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

For many people, utility poles and power lines have become such a familiar part of Japan’s landscape that they often go unnoticed.

Why Japan’s utility poles won’t be disappearing anytime soon

By Alex K.T. Martin

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