Posted in: Ana & Isa's Blog, Journal On The Road, On The Road | By Isa

Greetings from Fukuoka! Today was a full day of Olympic style competition with about 150 transplant recipients and over a dozen Japanese donor families.

I’ll briefly summarize yesterday… we arrived at a gorgeous athletic facility, only 4 train stops away from Harata station.  We registered and of course saw a nice booth selling our books, with a huge banner about our visit overhead. We were treated to a fabulous bento box, and then gathered for the Opening Ceremony. Half a dozen attendees from Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand and the USA (Isa, Ana, Tom) entered a gymnasium following a volunteer holding their country’s sign. Then after us came about 100 Japanese athletes, and then after that about 15 Japanese donor families. They exist! They are the highest form of humanity!! There were speeches; Ana and I gave a speech as well as a donor family member Mr Tanaka, several city officials and the Transplant Committee hosts.  It was so exciting and humbling! This event was much, much simpler than the US Games, but still amazing to be part of it.

Then we watched a little bit of curling, badminton, and tennis. then we head for Harata station and went back to our hotel area, to walk a few blocks away for… bowling!

Andrew and I bowled together. I bowled a 32 for my first game and 55 on my next. I think out of 200 people in that bowling alley I was last!

Then we went to the Welcome Party. Medals were awarded to winners, and we share a great meal with many. I spoke to many people in Japanese- mothers, fathers of recipients, recipients themselves, and many donor families. I was so amazed to hear the stories- many kidney recipients who waited 17-20 years, people who received living liver donations from their parents, a small intestine recipient, many, many heart recipients who waited 3-6 months in the USA…. so many great stories. The patience and fight for life of these recipients is beyond anything I’ve ever witnessed.

Today I awoke early and ate cream pan, an pan and a caffeine-laden snickers bar, before heading to the pool at 9AM. I felt pretty fatigued and achey, but did my best. The pool was indoors and sauna-like; so I felt very anxious about oxygen. I practiced a little, got myself very excited/stressed and did my best.

We cheered the little kids— they were so cute!!! Some were so pretty fast; others panicked and stood up in the pool, then cried because they didn’t win. There were about 30 kids in the Japan Games- most living related recipients from their parents.

Ana and I swam the 50 m breast, free and back; as well as the 100m breast, free and back. I don’t know why we signed up for so many events and totally depleted ourselves. We swam alongside a blind kidney recipient, and felt kind of bad to come ahead of her each time. With Xavier’s great lungs, and some caffeine, I was blessed to win gold in both lengths of breast and free; and Ana won the two backstrokes. It was awesome.

I then did ball throw and received the gold… not a lot of Japanese women seem to be athletic, so I think I was the only adult female who did this. Then I did frisbee and didn’t do very well; though during the practice I hit the target twice. Ana kicked but at the 100m dash and won gold (no other adult females did this) and then we walked a 3K. The weather was sunny and warm. All day long we greeted friendly and happy people- kids, guys, girls, donor families, recipient families, sponsors, PR specialists, volunteers, amazingly outgoing and friendly Japanese. Indeed, there is something very unique about the Japanese transplant community!!! The little kids took a liking to us and always came up to us to chat. They were the cutest little things I’ve ever seen! A clueless two year old did the long jump (62 cm) and ball throw, and all we could do was laugh! We passed out donate life bracelets and bubbles, and just met more people we could put our name to. I met 2 heart recipients who went to Utah two decades ago, and one heart recipient who received her heart at UCLA 2 years ago. these people have to go through so, so, so much to receive transplants! Their patience and determination was amazing.

At the Closing Ceremony, everyone got into a huge circle around the field and held hands. Then we rushed inwards toward each other, with cheers of joy and laughter. It was such an intense celebration of community, love, life and joy!

Tonight at the Closing Gala we enjoyed  a delicious dinner. A  live band played American music, and Mr Tanaka, very wild donor father (he lost his daughter 9 years ago at age 27, and was the 5th brain dead donor in Japan) started to get the crowd excited(with help of beer), and we all danced to our hearts content. Even Dr Fukushima, a world famous Japanese heart surgeon and lobbyist for the recent law change in Japan that now allows children to donate and receive organs, danced like you wouldn’t believe. My goodness, these people were out of control! This was not the reserved Japanese style culture I expected. Perhaps people had a few beers, but it was so great to see donor families and even many heart recipients jumping up and down wildly. Words can’t describe it; luckily Nickolas Rossi got it all on tape!!!

Each of these recipients is an individual life saved- precious, cherished, unique, meaningful one life!

Then we had the medal ceremony. Somehow things got confused and I only got 3 medals. Glennon, if you’re reading this, you know my competitive streak …. forgive me…. But –remind me– it’s not about the medals!!!!

My favorite part of tonight is after dinner a donor mother came up to my table and said, tearfully, that our conversation at the bowling alley was the first time she really felt she did the right thing donating her daughter’s organs 10 years ago. She never had such a meaningful conversation with a recipient before, and I was deeply touched. She cried and made me cry. I presented her with a gold medal. She deserves it.

I’m completely exhausted and have a runny nose, which I hope is just nerves. I have so much more to write but it’s late and I need to crash.

The entries I write are just a portion of our incredible experiences at the Japan Transplant Games!!!!!!

I hope you are all well- thank you for your support and love, Isa