Apologies to those dedicated souls who read my blog, it’s been 3 months since I left japan and never finished recounting my swim meet. I’d like to say it was to build tension, but mostly it’s because I was busy and distracted. So here it is:
I got up Friday morning, the 23rd of November, a national holiday so Café COEN was closed. It was the day of the swim meet and had some carbs for breakfast. I double checked my bags to make sure I had everything, towels, swim suits, goggles, cap, food, and drink. At 7am I ran out to meet Chiyoko san who had graciously offered to let me ride with her to the meet. We got to the pool and found Konami Oyachi and stood for a good 20 minutes freezing outside together with all the other participants before we were allowed into the building. After we were let into the building, Chiyoko san and I changed quickly and found our lane to warm up. It was hectic, hundreds of swimmers ages 5-75+ trying to get in the pool and warm up before the opening ceremony. I swam a few laps and crawled out when the lanes got too full to actually swim. I waited for a while and joined back in when my team began practicing starts. I dove in using my newer goggles and as I entered the water they rolled down my face. I swam halfway down the lane blind and climbed out. I switched out my goggles for an older pair, practiced diving in with those, and the same thing happened. I was running out of time, but managed 2 more starts before they cleared the pool. Changing my streamline, head position, nothing seemed to work, my goggles continued to fall off-I WAS DOOMED!
When I made my way back up to the stands to sit with my team, I tried to gesture and explain to my coach what had happened. He told me I better tighten my goggles- that’s why he’s the coach, I guess. I tightened the heck out of them in hopes that they’d be tight enough to stay on but not so tight that my eyeballs fall out of my head. I got my program and figured out my event, heat and lane numbers and circled in the program where I could find the Japanese characters for “Oyachi” printed so I could know when my team members were swimming also. I watched intently the first few events and a few of my teammates started handing out snacks they had brought for everyone. I ate a little knowing I had some time before my race. By the time warm-ups were over it had started snowing pretty intensely, I figured my friends would probably opt to stay home, but Yukari came for the first event (the medley relay) and many more moms and tots, regular customers, staff and friends came for the 50m kickboard kick, 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle! Just a handful of friends were there for my final race (the freestyle relay).
The first relay was fine, my goggles stayaed on, but we got 3rd place- just .09 seconds slower than 2nd place. Next was my 50m kickboard race. Normally they assign people by speed and the faster people go in the last heat of an event. But since this was a new event to the meet, everyone was starting without a time and were randomly assigned to heats and lanes. I still managed to be in one of the center lanes (another advantage usually reserved for faster swimmers) but next to me was a 7 year old girl. As we waited our turn, lined up in our lane order and grouped together with the other swimmers in our heats, I was getting nervous and excited as I glanced up at the stands to see all my friends from the café who had made it to the pool to come see me swim! I didn’t want to lose to the 7 year old! No matter though, when we finally got in the pool, it was just like I had practiced (but twice as long since I only ever practiced 25m at a time) and I won my heat. Checking the results after, I won not only the heat but my age group and was 2nd overall men and women in the whole meet. No big deal. 😉
Between events was fun, socializing, hanging out with friends, taking pictures with the kids from the moms and tots class who came to visit and cheer for me. I tried to stick a little food in me too because I learned from the year before that although my nerves rid me of my appetite, it’s super important to keep putting in fuel. It was a little challenging because I was also saying my last goodbyes to people and still trying to focus on swimming. Regardless, it was a very fun time. 
My next race was the 50 meter butterfly, another one I was nervous for because in 2011 I had beat out a woman known as the “butterfly queen.” I was nervous because I figured she would have dedicated herself to practicing all year and would have dropped 10 seconds and returned to reclaim her title! As it turns out, she didn’t show up, I was seeded 1st overall in the event and did, in fact, win it again. I guess that means I’m still the reigning butterfly queen 😉
As I was getting ready for my 50m freestyle, I went down to the pool deck to line up with the other swimmers in my heat. As I stretched my swim cap over my head a piece over my left ear tore off and I stood there in shock. I had packed an extra towel, an extra swim suit, an extra pair of goggles, but I only had one swim cap! I looked at my team mate who was standing there with me and asked “what do I do?!” This guy nearby jumped in and told me he had an extra, ran back to his locker and grabbed it for me! I didn’t recognize the guy at the time, wasn’t sure how I was going to get his swim cap back to him, but was super grateful for his generosity and compassion. I put it on very carefully and used it to swim my last 2 events.
At the end of the meet, I showered and got dressed and spent 20 minutes looking for my friend Chiyoko san, I found her sitting in the stands watching the closing ceremony. It turns out that Oyachi won the adult division of the meet-not bad since we were one of the smallest gyms competing. I gave the borrowed swim cap to my coach who agreed to figure out to whom it belonged. And we headed outside. I was tired from not sleeping much the night before, close swimming races and saying good byes to my friends. It was still snowing so I threw on my gloves and helped clear off Chiyoko san’s car. We made our way back to Sapporo and went to dinner with the rest of the team. 
The post-meet, celebratory dinner was at a restaurant called Tsubohatchi, the same as when I swam in 2011. It was a little spendy, but it was a ton of food, bottomless drinks, and a convertible space that could grow to include our whole group (20+ people). It was a great meal and time to share together. Near the end all the certificates were delivered to the restaurant by one of the coaches and we had a mini-awards ceremony. I met the guy who lent me his swim cap and thanked him several more times. He and his wife spoke some English and had been to Café COEN several years ago, so they made plans to visit me at the café the following day. Also notable was that Chiyoko san came even though she doesn’t like doing too much with the team outside of swimming together, but she seemed to enjoy herself. Also it turns out Konami, the chain of gyms, sponsored the Japanese Olympic team and one of the Japanese Olympic swimmers came to the meet, swam twice just to show how incredibly fast he was, walked around the pool deck chatting with other participants and signing autographs halfway through the meet.
Saturday morning I got up tired from so much excitement the day before, but took the subway downtown because I had made plans with Kanako to go check out the parade for the Hokkaido Fighters, the local baseball team that made it to the championships but lost. Two days in a row I got to see professional athletes in person, I felt pretty good about it. We made our way back to Café COEN and worked together in the afternoon. This was my last official day in the café so I had more sad goodbyes and Yoshie even showed up with a homemade, DELICIOUS roll cake. 
After the café closed for the evening, we had church and at 7pm I took off for Terumi san’s apartment for a goodbye party. We had already gotten together at Masako san’s apartment, Hideko san’s house and now Terumi san invited us to share dinner at her house. Masako, Miho and I met at the Oyachi subway station; I had bought an all-day subway ticket in the morning in anticipation for the evening’s adventures. While we were waiting for Miho to arrive, came across another couple all-day passes that were abandoned by the gate and redistributed them to my friends so they wouldn’t have to buy tickets. I don’t remember from whom I had learned about the habit of “dropping” the all-day pass when you were done with it so someone else might grab it to be able to use it near the end of the day, but it came in handy that night.
We got to Terumi’s house and the mood was a little somber in anticipation for the goodbyes that were quickly approaching. The food was delicious, we still had a lot of laughs together (impossible not to with this group of ladies) and we took some pictures together. I was near tears when we left Terumi’s house, but Masako, Hideko, Miho and I were still taking the subway together. Before entering the door down to the subway, a big gust of wind came up from the station and literally blew another all-day ticket into my leg, so I gave it to Hideko san since she was the only one left without one and we all laughed in shock at how great I was at finding these tickets! Hideko rode the subway back to Oyachi with us, a few stops in the wrong direction from her own house and we had our goodbyes in the subway station.
Sunday midday I went to my last Fat Bye-Bye water aerobics class at my gym and we celebrated Thanksgiving with a meal at Mark and Athlee’s house exclusive to those who had been attending the COEN church services. There was everything from turkey to sushi, Japanese and American versions of sweet potatoes and of course pumpkin pie. Although not biological family, it definitely met the need for a family Thanksgiving dinner. That night I got most of my packing done, cooked and baked to use up some more of the food I had bought in excess and began cleaning the apartment. 
Monday I woke up to take out the trash and then fell back asleep until I woke up to Ami’s phone call saying she and Hiromi were outside. I ran around my apartment frantically getting dressed, grabbing what I needed, trying to make my bedhead look presentable and ran out the door to meet them in about 5 minutes flat. They took me to this cool little Vietnamese teahouse and I learned how to prepare Vietnamese tea. We also made a trip to Ami’s kids’ school. I realized I had never been in a Japanese school so that was a cool experience in itself, and I also got to say goodbye to her kids.
I got back to my apartment with just enough time to mash some potatoes for my last going away party at Aki chan’s house with the moms and tots class, Andy and Megan, Mark and Athlee. As always the kids had a ton of fun together, the food was amazing, and it was a nice time. It ended a little early so the kids could get ready for bed and I got back to the apartment with just enough time to get to my gym for my last Masters Swim class. I told my coach that it was my last day so we practiced swimming and diving like normal and then the last 10 minutes of class we formed a circle and each person took turns battling through English to tell me “your swimming inspires me,” “I like your smile,” “you swim fast”, etc. and when it was my turn I apologized for speaking so little Japanese, thanked them for trying English with me and said I had fun swimming with all of them.
I eventually made it back to the apartment and finished cleaning and packing. I was up pretty late but did get a few hours of sleep. Tuesday morning came, I washed all my towels and sheets so I could leave everything clean. It had started snowing pretty early and we were planning to leave around 10:30am for the airport. There were a number of the staff there, Athlee was my driver for the trip and she could tell the snow was getting heavier and urging us to leave. Several of the moms from the moms and tots class came to send me off, a number of the staff were there also; it was the last of my goodbyes. I rode with Athlee to the airport and while she drove I finished off a cowl I had taken 3 months to knit on Athlee’s needles, I didn’t want to take the needles home with me so I frantically knit the whole way there. 30 minutes into the drive I looked up for the first time and realized it was practically a blizzard outside and we were still trucking along. Ami and Hiromi followed us to the airport but we got separated partway there because of the snow. I finished my cowl at the airport while waiting for my delayed check-in. We got coffee and waited some more.
After getting checked in, I went to go wait by the gate, Ami had to get home to let her kids in, Athlee had a lesson to teach in the afternoon, so with some hugs, photos and goodbyes we parted ways. I eventually got on my flight and we got out when the snow let up just a little. My original flight pattern was Sapporo, Tokyo, LA, Dallas, Minneapolis, but when leaving Sapporo I was informed it would not be possible to make my connection to LA. I thought for a while that meant I’d have to stay a night in Tokyo and I started brainstorming how to contact the couple people I know there. Upon arrival, however, I was met by an airline worker with a new itinerary for me that skipped the LA layover and flew straight to Dallas while still giving me enough time in Tokyo to find dinner and I was still on the same flight Dallas to Minneapolis! It was like a free upgrade! The compromise of course was that my long flight Tokyo to Dallas I was seated in the middle of 5 seats and in front of a wall so my seat didn’t recline much at all.
The short version: I had a wonderful time in Japan, I’m still the butterfly queen, it was hard to say even more goodbyes this year and I’m so honored and blessed to have such great friends there. I have plans already to go back, July – Sept. My friend Jesse will travel to Japan with me and stay for 3 weeks and the plan for my return flight is that 3 of my Japanese friends will fly back with me and stay for a week, checking out as many of the cool places in Minnesota as possible.
I was home for 2 months and I’m now currently in Guatemala. Goal for my next post: get current! 🙂
rebeccajuarez 