TOKYO -- The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF)'s Blue Impulse aerobatics fighter jet team soared over the capital ahead of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on July 23, skywriting the Olympic rings to the delight of onlookers.

       Six jets flew over the National Stadium just past 12:45 p.m. on July 23, with five of them creating rings with a diameter of about 1.2 kilometers in the five Olympic colors -- red, green, black yellow and blue.

       Aviation enthusiasts and passersby let out cheers and applauded as the jets flew by.

       Air Self-Defense Force Blue Impulse jets release colored smoke in the sky above Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward ahead of the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony, on July 23, 2021. (Mainichi/Koichiro Tezuka)

       Blue Impulse came into the spotlight during the previous Tokyo Olympics in 1964 when they drew Olympic rings in the sky.

       To avoid crowds gathering this time amid an ongoing state of emergency over the spread of the coronavirus in Tokyo, the ASDF didn't announce the time of the jets' flight on its Twitter account or other places until only shortly beforehand, at about 11:30 a.m.

       Nevertheless, many people were seen around the National Stadium from the morning of July 23 anticipating the jets' arrival, and near JR Shinanomachi Station close to the stadium, one person was heard asking, "Why are there so many people here?"

       (Japanese original by Yoshitake Matsuura, Tokyo City News Department)

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