Day 2 – Feet and folly [5th April 2009]

I opened my eyes around six in the morning and made the mistake of going to the toilet and fetching something to drink which meant I was fully awake rather than just bleary eyed and partially comatose. After getting showered and dressed, I tried to drill some Japanese into my brain (mostly to do with ordering food and asking for a table) then wandered down to the hotel restaurant around seven. Even at such an uncivilised hour the place was packed, including a group of noisy, middle-aged women sitting opposite me. Using a breakfast voucher obtained from the front desk, I munched on some sort of fish (potentially salmon though it could have been anything), broth and a pair of very neatly fried eggs. After eating and helping myself to some odd tasting fruit juice, I sauntered back up to my room – unsure as to the etiquette of leaving when I didn’t have to pay. The hotel lobby sported a couple of Dell Vostro 1000 laptops which let me post an update to Facebook and also bash out a blog post; part of the way through writing the post I managed to switch the keyboard into Japanese mode which took and embarrassing amount of jiggery pokery to switch off. Handy hint: aim for the key that has purely Japanese writing on it and is in a position you don’t recognise. Read full post »