All aboard. The Asian Games will lodge thousands of athletes on an Italian cruise ship

NAGOYA, Japan (AP) — All Aboard.

The Italian cruise ship Costa Serena that will house up to 5,000 officials and athletes for the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, received its official welcome on Tuesday at Kinjo Pier in the host city.

The 16-day games open Saturday and run through Oct. 4.

Without a dedicated athletes village, officials are using the cruise ship, hotels and converted containers to house more than 11,000 athletes. That's more than the 10,700 athletes who attended the Paris Olympics in 2024.

“So, today our ship becomes more than a destination,” ship Captain Federico Sias said at the Tuesday ceremony. "It becomes home where athletes and guests from across Asia can come together in the spirit of friendship, mutual respect and unity.”

Officials have not released an official count of athletes, but the number could match the 12,000 that participated three years ago in the games in Hangzhou, China.

The Asian Games, first held in 1951 in New Delhi, India, includes 45 countries and regions and 43 sports — many Olympic disciplines and a few regional specialties.

To adjust to the limited space, many teams are expected to stagger arrivals of athletes and officials. Athletes in early events will leave and make way for others.

See full AP coverage of Asian sports here

The Italian cruise ship, the Costa Serena, that will house up to 5,000 officials and athletes for the Asian Games, arrives at a port in Nagoya, central Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (Kazushi Kurihara/Kyodo News via AP)

The Italian cruise ship, the Costa Serena, that will house up to 5,000 officials and athletes for the Asian Games, arrives at a port in Nagoya, central Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (Kazushi Kurihara/Kyodo News via AP)

The ceremony for the Italian cruise ship, the Costa Serena, that will house up to 5,000 officials and athletes for the Asian Games, seen at background, is held upon the arrival at a port in Nagoya, central Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (Kazushi Kurihara/Kyodo News via AP)

The Italian cruise ship, the Costa Serena, that will house up to 5,000 officials and athletes for the Asian Games, is seen in Tokyo, Japan, on Jan. 23, 2026. (Kyodo News via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Quentin Tarantino has stepped back from directing in recent years, but he continues to build upon his career as an author. The upcoming spinoff from his “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood” will be accompanied by Tarantino's novelization of the new film.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker's second novelization, “The Adventures of Cliff Booth,” will come out Dec. 8. It's Tarantino's take on “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth,” in which Brad Pitt returns in the title role as a former Hollywood stuntman. David Fincher is directing, from a screenplay by Tarantino, who also published a novelized version of “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood.”

According to Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, the new book “offers Tarantino’s own creative vision for this story in novel form.”

“Can’t wait for audiences to see and read Cliff Booth’s further adventures,” Tarantino said in a statement released Tuesday by Harper.

Tarantino is best known for such films as “Pulp Fiction,” “Inglourious Basterds” and “Reservoir Dogs.” He hasn't directed a feature film since “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood,” which came out in 2019, but has written the two novelizations and a work of film criticism-autobiography, “Cinema Speculation.”

FILE - Quentin Tarantino poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Nouvelle Vague' at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File)