Jet Lag

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I did go to bed at 9:30 p.m. and by 11:00, I was awake again. That was 8:00 a.m. Champaign time and my body said it was time to go to work. I tossed and turned for several hours and then got up, wrote a couple of entries to my blog and then went back to bed to toss and turn some more. Interestingly enough, that room card receptacle that turns the lights to the room on and off turns them all on and off. There's no way (at least none I have found; I can't believe the efficient Japanese would not have forseen the problem) to have some of the lights on and some off. So, unless I want to wake The Wife in the middle of the night, I have to work in the dark. Which is no problem when I'm writing on my laptop, but a bit of a problem when I go to the bathroom.

Luckily, the Japanese have a solution to everything, and there is a flashlight in the closet, which I spotted before I went to bed, so I get the flashlight to light my way to the bathroom. Second problem; the door to the bathroom won't open. Now what? I yank around by the light of the flashlight, thinking, "surely, it didn't get locked accidentally," when I realize it opens out instead of in. It makes sense, I guess, if you're going to drive on the wrong side of the road, it might be confusing if the doors didn't open opposite from the rest of the world, too.

I try the Butt Shower again, and I, again, come to the conclusion that one should always think, "safety first," and finish up with toilet paper, no matter how exotic the idea of a Butt Shower might be.

I go back to bed, actually sleep a little bit and then by 3:00 a.m. (1:00 p.m. home time) I'm tossing and turning again. By 4:00 a.m. it is getting light outside. Tokyo must be pretty far north to be getting light this early. I'll have to check the latitude. I look out and take back all my grumbling about the scenery around the airport last night. A beautiful view is all I can see out my window. Picture follows.

By then, I'm wide awake, so, since The Wife is still sleeping, I decide to take a shower by flashlight. It takes a while to figure out how to get the water to actually come out, but when I finally get it spraying on me and not the floor, it is a very nice shower. I get the blog up to date and I think I'm ready to face the world again.