Blog#2

Japan Journals

Part I

My journey to the Five Ten Cup began with me sprinting shoeless through the Minneapolis airport listening to the demanding “Final Boarding Call” that was being announced on the loud speaker. I thought I had a ten hour layover, but it turns out I read the time wrong and had less than forty-five minutes. I was breathless at the gate and we pushed away almost instantly after I was seated. If you don’t think you can sleep sitting up in two square feet of space, thirteen hours alone on an airplane could change your mind. Boredom will eventually win.

The plane finally descended in Narita, Japan against a brilliant orange and pink sunset. As I looked out my window I could see the waves from the Pacific crashing up against the shore, and the shadowy figures of mountains faded off into the distance. The scene was utterly breathtaking, concluding the solo portion of my trip in the most serene way imaginable.

From the second I stepped into the baggage claim area, the only time I spent alone was when I was asleep in my hotel room. I was on the 21^st floor of the Prince Hotel with a view of endless skyscrapers and a snow-capped Mt. Fuji. My hosts were welcoming and excited, and kept me very busy with tourist destinations, like the Tokyo Tower and Sensoji Temple, and bouldering at one of the 20 gyms in the city.

The competition began at 9am on Saturday. It was the longest day of competing of my life, and went as follows: lead qualifiers; speed qualifiers; lead semi-finals; a ten problem bouldering qualifier session; lead finals; (lead) dyno qualifiers; speed finals; bouldering finals; dyno finals. Needless to say I was exhausted. And I failed to mention earlier that I was competing in all of these events in Men’s Open, along with two other elite women from Japan.

 I ended up taking first place in Men’s Speed and Dyno, placing fifth (I think) in Men’s Bouldering, and practically last in Men’s Lead. It was a really fun but tiring comp, and although I honestly had no clue what was being said about me, I kept hearing my name announced, so I’m assuming it was good and that they liked me… J