The Competition Pool

Ian and Michelle at a Temple

Michelle, Ian, Michael with Geisha

Michelle, Ian, Matt at the Imperial Palace

Night Lights of Tokyo

Tokyo by Night

Japan Swim Short 2005

I’ve just returned home from a fantastic trip to Japan. It’s the second time I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the island country; but I have to say, I love the Japanese people!! They are so kind, generous, and organized… and they love giving presents! What more could you ever want? We five Australians were treated fantastically. The hotel was in a great part of town, the food was all organized, and they even went out of their way to find me some vegetarian meals! At first I was worried I’d be on rabbit food, but they sorted everything out for me and I ate fantastically well!

        We arrived late Wednesday, and basically just had something to eat and passed out on our hard (and chiropractically sound) beds in the rooms. It’d been a 10 hour flight, and we were very tired!

Thursday was spent pampering ourselves at the Spa! we soaked away most of our aches and pains from the travel, and after practically becoming mermaids/mermen we headed in for a  Reiki style massage that relieved any lingering travel aches. We also had the opportunity that day of being tourists, and visiting a group of clustered temples. We walked through the Kaminari Mon Gate, visited the Sensojo Temple, the Five-storied Pogada, and the Kannon do (main temple). We made coin donations, lit candles, and purchased wishes. I’m still trying to figure out what my fortune/wish means, but I suppose that’s half the fun!

        Friday we experienced the main competition pool set up as 2x 25 meter pools. We had lunch at the pool after training, and got to spend time with the other international athletes who were to compete also. There were representatives from Canada, Finland, France, Guam, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Thailand, Taipei, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. It was fun to catch up with many of them, whom we’d met at previous international competitions. I crashed out for the rest of the afternoon, watched a movie, and ate some very garlic pasta! I’m glad I had my own room!

        The competition began on Saturday with my event that day being 50 freestyle. I arrived 2 hours before being due to compete, and was astounded when I walked around the pool area! Many of the Japanese swimmers were practically camping out! They had brought sleeping bags, rugs, food, drinks… they were setting up for the long haul! It was reminiscent of childhood swim meets where we used to camp out for the whole day, only to go home after the very last swim! I was very tired going into the racing in Japan, due to the stage of the season we were at, but I managed to race well. The Saturday morning swim felt smooth, and I went into the final ranked 1^st. there was only about 4 hours between my heat swim and my final swim, but I decided to head back to the hotel after lunch, on the 30 min bus ride, to catch an hours rest. I felt tired, but ok in the warm-up that afternoon, and realized that it was important to get myself up mentally for the swim that night. Hanna-Maria Seppala was there, the World Champion sprinter, so I knew I’d have to race tough if I wanted a win! I pumped Christina Aguilera “Fighter” through my headphones and got myself ready. I took off with a faster start than I’ve had in a while, and raced aggressively. I won, and went a time I was pleased with. In my interview after the race I busted out my few short sentences in Japanese, and the crowd roared with applause after each comment from me! I suppose they were quite surprised to hear a blond (completely natural of course!!) Australian speak their language!!

       Day two, Sunday, was an even tougher day of racing! For some unknown reason the 100 freestyle was one of the last events of the morning, but the first of the afternoon program! Also, the finals session started earlier in the afternoon than the previous day. I raced well in the heats, and went a best time. I snuck into the final in equal 7^th place. I was lucky it wasn’t equal 8^th because at that meet there weren’t any swim offs to earn a final spot. Instead the two tied athletes either flipped a coin to see who went in, or played rock paper scissors!! One of the New Zealand girls opted for the coin toss and chose tails… someone should have told her to always pick heads! She would have had another swim if she had!!

We had less than 3 hours between sessions, so I grabbed some lunch at the pool, found a semi-comfortable bench to lie on, and rested while listening to meditation music. I had about 45 minutes to chill out before heading back into the pool for some stretching before my warm-up. I did a lot more drills in the water to get myself ready, and worked on the mental side of things the whole way through. I thought through how I wanted to race the final. Wearing my Athens’ racing suit I was ready to go. I did my last stages of physical and mental preparations in the marshalling area, wished the other girls good luck, and we walked out to behind the blocks. I was in lane 8, and had my name announced last. When I was announced the crowd cheered, remembering my race and interview from the previous day I suppose! I turned, bowed and waved to the crown and turned to face the pool. I got off to a good start, raced long and strong, and pushed through the pain in the last 25 meters! I went another best time, taking almost a second of my previous best time from before this competition, and earned a 4^th place finish.

That night all the international athletes were invited to a farewell/thank you dinner at the pool, where president and other high ranking officials of Japanese swimming thanked us for coming. In turn all our head coaches made speeches thanking the Japanese swimming federation for inviting us!

Afterwards Ian Pope and I headed into the Roppongi (a part of the city) to have a look around. We went to the top of the Tokyo Tower Lookout, and had a sensational view of the city. I knew Tokyo was enormous, boasting a population of 11 million people, but to see it from such a vantage point was astounding. The city went forever it seemed, and there were never-ending lights and neon signs! We then walked down the Roppongi Boulevard to see what it was like, and were impressed! Naturally we posed for photos with the bright signs behind, and the friendly Japanese were very happy to help!! Before heading home on Monday Ian, Matt and I visited the Imperial Palace, and tried to get inside but were scared off by the intimidating armed guards. Instead we returned to the Rox building near the hotel to visit the Bathhouse and relax. It was a perfect way to end a fantastic trip, and I know I certainly would love to return for that competition again in future!

 Thank you very much to the Japanese swimming federation for organizing a professional high standard swim meet. In Tokyo, and for extending a very generous invitation to us to compete alongside some of the best in the world!

 A special thanks to Masi, Amy and Aya for all their help in organizing and translating for us!