Tired...

Got up this morning after sleeping not so well.. First problem was the hard bed, second problem was sleeping too much on the plane.. I set my alarm for 7:30am and ended up getting up with the sun around 6:40, will have to remember to shut the curtains tonight.. The hotel has two restaurants that serve breakfast and both of them are free for executive guests. The first one is an "American" style restaurant and the other is a "Japanese" style one, bet you can't guess which one I ate at.. Let me give you a hint, I had chili powder rubbed tuna tartar, some spicy roe, pan fried salmon, pan fried mackerel, miso soup, salt crusted dried kelp, chopped cucumber salad, steamed tofu square, steamed scrambled egg, vegetable juice and some tea. If that didn't give it away the last hint is I was the only non-japanese person in the restaurant! If I could eat that for breakfast everyday I would not bitch about breakfast.. I know that sounds like a ton of food, but it was buffet style and I only had a little bit of each thing.. OK, well maybe I had a bunch of the tuna tartar... :D

I left that restaurant and walked by the other one on my upstairs and there was a line about 15-20 people long waiting to get in.. There was no line at the restaurant I went to..

Got to work before the doors were open, apparently they never gave my badge access so I ended up sitting in the hall chatting on IM till they let me in around 8:40. Class went well this morning, two students ended up cancelling so I only have 5 students this week. They are quiet of course and keep saying how their English is bad even though they speak better English than a lot of Americans. Class in labs right now..

There are a bunch of options for lunch food in and around this building. I chose the "easy" option of going to the cafeteria, one of the guys from work said it is good so I went down with him. The way the cafeteria works is sorta odd, you go up to a vending machine and pay/pick your meal then you wait in line for your meal to be ready. It was a good bargain, for 680 Yen I got fish with that brown sweet sauce they use on Eel in America, tuna salad, miso soup, rice, regular salad and green tea. Although the price was good the food was just ok, I would not say it was bad by any means but I gotta think there are better choices. The funny thing is that if an American cafeteria served what I ate today I would be singing it's praises but I just feel that it fell short of what I expect from food here. There is a sit down and be served restaurant in the building too so I will be trying that one tomorrow..

I don't know what I am planning for tonight, my body would probably be happy if I just stayed at the hotel, maybe hit the pool and certainly go to bed early. However, my mind says "great big city, must explore, who needs sleep".. I can't honestly say who will win this fight today.. I guess it depends on what time I get done with class today.. If I get done early enough perhaps I will take a nap and then go exploring..

If you didn't know the Nippon Ham Fighters won the game against the Seibu Lions on Sunday, why does this matter you ask.. Remember from a previous blog I mentioned that the game I have a ticket for (Tuesday) is game 4 of the series, if the Lions had won the first three there would not have been a game 4. The series is tied 1-1 right now, if the Lions win tonight then tomorrow could be their clincher which would be really awesome to see. If the Ham Fighters win tonight they will go to a game 5 on Wednesday.

The more I think about it the more I like Japanese baseball's rule for home field advantage where the team with the better record enters the series with a 1 game advantage. If they had that rule in America the Rays/Red Sox series would have ended in 3 games. The Rays having the better record (and therefore home field advantage) would have only had to win 3 games in the series where the Red Sox would have to win 4. Maybe it's unfair but it really puts the pressure on the wild card teams. In American baseball the wild card team has just as much chance to take a series, if they entered the series already down a game it puts so much more pressure on them.. It would end the crap where if both teams are going to make the playoffs like the Red Sox and Rays they stop trying because they don't care who wins the division and who takes the wild card.

Well, that's it for me for now.. Oh, one more thing.. Did you know it's against the law to smoke on the street in Tokyo! They have no smoking signs painted on the sidewalks.. I have to remember to take a picture of one.. Unfortunately it's not against the law to smoke in buildings/restaurants.. The cafeteria had a non-smoking section but the people waiting in line for their food were allowed to smoke..