Nagano Japan

To some, the vote reflected courage. Others considered it cowardice. Either way, there is no denying the International Olympic Committee's decision to award the 1998 Winter Games to Nagano, Japan, avoided a firestorm of criticism and debate. The decision, taken at the close of the IOC's 97th session in a ceremony at the International Convention Center, will bring the Olympic Games to Japan for the third time and make good on the IOC's promise to open up Asia.

News item: Terje Haakonsen will not be present during the Winter Olympics at Turin, Italy. Reaction: Terje who? To some it seems like ages ago when the world's greatest snowboarder said those nasty things about those who run the world's greatest sports festival. Specifically, he compared then-International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch to mobster Al Capone and referred to IOC members as "ski-Nazis."

You say "toe-MAY-toe," I say "toe-MAH-toe." And they say "NAHG-a-no," we say "nah-GAH-no." That's the mournful tune being sung in Nagano-surnamed households across Los Angeles this week as the Winter Olympics from Nagano, Japan, are beamed into living rooms all over town. Japanese Americans whose last name is Nagano say that television commentators from the Olympic site are mispronouncing their name.

Too much snow, not enough compelling stories and a less-than-stellar broadcast gave CBS the lowest-rated Winter Olympics in 30 years and probably is going to cost the network heavily. According to the preliminary numbers released by CBS on Monday, the network got a 16.2 rating and 26 share for its prime-time coverage, 42% behind the 27.8 and 42 from Lillehammer and 13% off the 18.7 rating and 29 share from Albertville. Nagano finished as the lowest-rated Olympics since 1968, when ABC got a 13.

News item: Terje Haakonsen will not be present during the Winter Olympics at Turin, Italy. Reaction: Terje who? To some it seems like ages ago when the world's greatest snowboarder said those nasty things about those who run the world's greatest sports festival. Specifically, he compared then-International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch to mobster Al Capone and referred to IOC members as "ski-Nazis."

When this once-sleepy temple town welcomes the world to the 1998 Winter Olympics 50 days from now, Japan's charms and quirks will be displayed as nakedly as the scantily clad sumo wrestlers who will help open the Games. Cheap this spectacle will not be. Japan may set an Olympic record for spending. But in return, it hopes to generate some badly needed economic and psychological cheer when the festivities begin Feb. 7. The city and prefecture of Nagano will shell out an estimated $1.

When Japanese emperors and shoguns grew weary of the world--or their power-hungry relatives grew weary of them--they would shave their heads and retreat to temples in a custom called "throwing away the world." Takakazu Fukushima, too, has quit his prestigious job as a professor at Yokohama National, shaved his head and donned Buddhist robes in order to succeed his father as a priest in the family temple.

Sights, sounds and experiences of Nagano: * Before going up the mountain, a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and French fries. * Houses of all sizes and shapes, stuck into any available space and close enough together to qualify for removal to San Francisco. * Comfortable buses with cut-glass light fixtures, reclining seats, trays and cup holders, TV sets and white-gloved drivers who thank you for riding.

You saw them everywhere here, wearing their two-tone gray recyclable uniforms and 1,000-watt smiles, the Nagano volunteers. They are the young and not-quite-young people who handled a thousand tasks in helping Olympic events get done and visitors get where they wanted to go. Among all that goes with these all-but-over Olympics, theirs might have been the toughest, and least understood, job here. For in Japan, it has not been cool to volunteer.

Too much snow, not enough compelling stories and a less-than-stellar broadcast gave CBS the lowest-rated Winter Olympics in 30 years and probably is going to cost the network heavily. According to the preliminary numbers released by CBS on Monday, the network got a 16.2 rating and 26 share for its prime-time coverage, 42% behind the 27.8 and 42 from Lillehammer and 13% off the 18.7 rating and 29 share from Albertville. Nagano finished as the lowest-rated Olympics since 1968, when ABC got a 13.

The Olympic caldron went out in Nagano on Sunday night, and, no, it wasn't because of a blizzard or a freezing monsoon. The Survivalist Games, the first Winter Olympics to almost get called on account of winter, came to their designated conclusion on time, amazingly with all the Alpine ski events completed a good 28 hours before the closing ceremony.

You saw them everywhere here, wearing their two-tone gray recyclable uniforms and 1,000-watt smiles, the Nagano volunteers. They are the young and not-quite-young people who handled a thousand tasks in helping Olympic events get done and visitors get where they wanted to go. Among all that goes with these all-but-over Olympics, theirs might have been the toughest, and least understood, job here. For in Japan, it has not been cool to volunteer.

You should have been here the other night, for the party. Flood party, that is. In one of The Times' apartments at the Yanagimachi press village. Some of us were already "home" and sacked out, but Ross Newhan was returning late from a long, hard day of Olympic coverage. Good thing he was late or we all would have awakened in floating beds. As Ross strolled down our long central hallway in his Olympic- issue slippers, he noticed it was raining.

In America, standing near a fourth-story, avenue-facing window with no clothes on in the afternoon would be considered indecent exposure. It probably would carry a stiff fine, maybe jail time. Yet, there I was Sunday, naked as a babe, stepping into a Japanese public bath as buses sped by on the street below. I was enjoying a luxury known here as onsen. Now, my motel is not equipped with a public bath. In fact, when I inquired about onsen, the manager pointed to my bathroom sink and giggled.

Sights, sounds and experiences of Nagano: * Before going up the mountain, a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and French fries. * Houses of all sizes and shapes, stuck into any available space and close enough together to qualify for removal to San Francisco. * Comfortable buses with cut-glass light fixtures, reclining seats, trays and cup holders, TV sets and white-gloved drivers who thank you for riding.

You say "toe-MAY-toe," I say "toe-MAH-toe." And they say "NAHG-a-no," we say "nah-GAH-no." That's the mournful tune being sung in Nagano-surnamed households across Los Angeles this week as the Winter Olympics from Nagano, Japan, are beamed into living rooms all over town. Japanese Americans whose last name is Nagano say that television commentators from the Olympic site are mispronouncing their name.

A tiny, inconspicuous store selling licensed Olympic goods is about the only clue in bustling downtown Nagano that the Winter Games are coming. Outside Nagano, the marketing has been almost non-existant. Sports fans who lamented the over-commercialization of the Atlanta Olympics last year can relax this time. In Nagano, the problem is just the opposite--the games aren't getting hyped enough. "There is a lot that needs to be done here," IOC marketing director Michael Payne said.

A vase of cut flowers on a clean ledge in a sparkling men's room at a highway rest stop. . . . Snow-capped mountains wherever one looks, when one is looking up. . . . Buses that leave precisely when scheduled. . . . Smiling faces of people so eager to please, it's almost embarrassing to ask for assistance. . . . I don't think we're in Georgia anymore, Bubba. They may be having Olympic Games here, but that's the only resemblance to Atlanta in the summer of '96.

Talk of Winter Olympics usually conjures pictures of quaint little towns nestling up against the mountains, smoke rising from the chimneys, quilts of snow covering the roofs of gingerbread cottages. Lillehammer fit the picture, perhaps better than any other recent Winter Games site. Albertville and environs didn't disappoint and even Lake Placid, for all of its problems, certainly was a scenic town. Then there's Nagano. It is not quaint. It is not cute.

In an area as diverse as Southern California, cultural differences are pretty much taken in stride. With a little searching, you can find the ethnic food of your choice, or anyone else's. Some stores brag about how many languages are spoken within. Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo--the Asian experience is only blocks away. Still, a stroll through Little Tokyo is hardly preparation for Japanese culture as lived in Japan, especially for those who have been immersed in "the American way."