After a rather large day that started early and ran well past the regular bedtime, you’d plan on sleeping in, and though I only managed a fitful sleep, at least it lasted until around six-forty-five.
Once I’d surged into action and resumed recharging the iPad, with the cable plugged in to the handy power point on the desk, while I resumed work on the Travelogue but ran into a couple of significant interruptions.
For a start, Madam delivered a copy of the English-language Japan Times, and I took time out to scan the contents.
It’s at times like this that you realise how insignificant certain domestic issues are on the world stage, and how little of the world’s attention is directed towards matters that tend to occupy Australian minds.
The most important matter Down Under was, of course, the Adelaide Test, and I hadn’t seen or heard a word or whisper about vital matters like the toss or a progress score since I’d woken up the previous morning.
Still, you’d reckon it just might rate a mention in a Japanese English language newspaper not least because there’d be a certain number of Australian and English expatriates among the readership. As it turned out there was some cricket content, but it was limited to a report that New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent was under investigation for match fixing.
My interest piqued, and I use that term deliberately, I turned my attention to other avenues. I turned on the TV after checking the hotel compendium and learning there was an English language BBC World Service available, and discovered that we wouldn’t be getting an Ashes update due to the overnight news that Nelson Mandela had died.
I spent the next while tapping away with one eye glancing over to the TV in the hope that the ticket tape scroll across the bottom of the screen might have some significant news, but was still none the wiser when I was ordered into the shower.
After the ablutions and so forth it was time to head down to reacquaint ourselves with the Breakfast Viking, another example of the way the Japanese take a western concept, rework and relabel it.
And Viking is, of course, a much easier word to work with than the Smorgasbord they've redefined it to mean.
Downstairs we were about to turn into the Camelia Restaurant, which is where we'd been able to look out over the tasteful Japanese garden between forays to and fro between the table and the extensive array of foodstuffs, when we were redirected to the hotel's other major catering space, which is usually reserved for wedding receptions.