My Olympic Vacation--Part II.

Sometimes Olympic dreams do come true. Two weeks ago, I wished we were headed for Adelaide instead of Sydney and what do you know. I struck gold! The Japanese Olympic soccer team, its loyal fans, and a large contingent of the Japanese media were soon off in search of gold in those Adelaide Hills.

Ah, the irony of it. For Japanese Olympic viewers, Adelaide suddenly (and for a few short days) took on more prominence than Sydney in the national mind.

With the Olympics, you just never can tell what is going to happen next. No wonder it is one of the best shows in the world.

Japan's hopes of victory in Adelaide hung on until the very last PK but in the hearts of Japanese soccer fans Adelaide was destined to go down as a sad moment in history. (Still the game from Adelaide brought in viewer ratings of 42.3 percent, the highest yet for an Olympic event.)

This defeat coming on the back of a controversial decision in the over-100-kilogram judo competition the night before, which crushed Shinichi Shinohara's hopes of gold, left the usually ebullient media battling depression.

Things were not looking bright on Sept. 23 but at least the Japanese TV crews were finally …