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Riyadh Season 2022 Kicks off with Shows 'Beyond Imagination'

Boulevard World part of Riyadh Season 2022 (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Boulevard World part of Riyadh Season 2022 (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Riyadh Season 2022 Kicks off with Shows 'Beyond Imagination'

Boulevard World part of Riyadh Season 2022 (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Boulevard World part of Riyadh Season 2022 (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA), Turki Al-Sheikh, announced on Wednesday the launching of the Riyadh Season 2022 under the slogan “Beyong Imagination”, which will kick off on Oct. 21 with an international event featuring the world-acclaimed Cirque du Soleil.

Al-Sheikh explained that the new season would consist of 15 areas, including the Boulevard World, which would display restaurants, markets and arts from several regions around the world, including America, France, Greece, India, China, Spain, and Japan, Morocco, Mexico, in addition to the Italian city of Venice.

The Boulevard World will also include the world’s largest artificial lake, allowing visitors to enjoy riding submarines for the first time in Riyadh.

Al-Sheikh said that visitors would also enjoy a number of special attractions, such as the Kombat Village and the Superhero Village, in addition to a cable car that allows movement between the Boulevard World and the Boulevard Riyadh City, with a capacity of up to 3,000 visitors per hour.

As for the Boulevard Riyadh City, which was present in the past seasons, Al-Sheikh said that it has been expanded to include 12 new restaurants and cafes, in addition to 25 Arab and international plays, including seven Saudi plays.

Al-Sheikh indicated that the Winter Wonderland area returns this year with five new attractions. This season will also feature the Riyadh Zoo, with more than 1,300 animals of 190 species.

With the World Cup kicking off next month, Al-Sheikh announced that the Riyadh Season would include the Fan Festival zone at Mrsool Park that would accommodate 20,000 fans for each game, in parallel with exhibitions on late football star Diego Maradona and the Newcastle Club.

Other sports events will be happening this year, including the Riyadh Season Cup that will bring together Paris Saint-Germain F.C. and players from Al Hilal SFC and Al-Nassr FC, in addition to WWE matches.

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Varieties

Tokyo Police Care for Lost Umbrellas, Keys, Flying Squirrels

This photo taken on August 2, 2024 shows thousands of umbrellas in containers at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Lost and Found Center in the Iidabashi area of central Tokyo. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks / AFP)
This photo taken on August 2, 2024 shows thousands of umbrellas in containers at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Lost and Found Center in the Iidabashi area of central Tokyo. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks / AFP)
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Tokyo Police Care for Lost Umbrellas, Keys, Flying Squirrels

This photo taken on August 2, 2024 shows thousands of umbrellas in containers at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Lost and Found Center in the Iidabashi area of central Tokyo. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks / AFP)
This photo taken on August 2, 2024 shows thousands of umbrellas in containers at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Lost and Found Center in the Iidabashi area of central Tokyo. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks / AFP)

Lost your umbrella, keys, or perhaps a flying squirrel? In Tokyo, the police are almost certainly taking meticulous care of it.

In Japan, lost items are rarely disconnected from their owners for long, even in a mega city like Tokyo -- population 14 million.

"Foreign visitors are often surprised to get their things back," said Hiroshi Fujii, a 67-year-old tour guide at Tokyo's vast police lost-and-found center.

"But in Japan, there's always an expectation that we will."

It's a "national trait" to report items found in public places in Japan, he told AFP. "We pass down this custom of reporting things we picked up, from parents to children."

Around 80 staff at the police center in Tokyo's central Iidabashi district ensure items are well organized using a database system, its director Harumi Shoji told AFP.

Everything is tagged and sorted to hasten a return to its rightful owner.

ID cards and driving licenses are most frequently lost, Shoji said.

- Flying squirrels, iguanas -

But dogs, cats and even flying squirrels and iguanas have been dropped off at police stations, where officers look after them "with great sensitivity" -- consulting books, online articles and vets for advice.

More than four million items were handed in to Tokyo Metropolitan Police last year, with about 70 percent of valuables such as wallets, phones and important documents successfully reunited with their owners.

"Even if it's just a key, we enter details such as the mascot keychain it's attached to," Shoji said in a room filled with belongings, including a large Cookie Monster stuffed toy.

Over the course of one afternoon, dozens of people came to collect or search for their lost property at the center, which receives items left with train station staff or at small local police stations across Tokyo if they are not claimed within two weeks.

If no one turns up at the police facility within three months, the unwanted item is sold or discarded.

The number of lost items handled by the center is increasing as Japan welcomes a record influx of tourists post-pandemic, and as gadgets become smaller, Shoji said.

Wireless earphones and hand-held fans are an increasingly frequent sight at the lost-and-found center, which has been operating since the 1950s.

But a whopping 200 square meters is dedicated to lost umbrellas -- 300,000 of which were brought in last year, with only 3,700 of them returned, Shoji said.

"We have a designated floor for umbrellas... during the rainy season, there are so many umbrellas that the umbrella trolley is overflowing and we have to store them in two tiers."