Japan-Tokyo
Monday morning, April 23
Forest Hongo Hotel dining room, Tokyo
I am sitting in the Forest Hongo hotel dining room listening to NPR with an ear-bud, sipping coffee, reading email, and writing. I am sitting here, next to a window facing other buildings because the hotel itself doesn’t have internet so I am pirating a signal from some kind neighboring business. It is also very exciting to be able to type, especially to type the wonderful useful letter “t”. Here is the story:
Yesterday on the Shinkasen train from Kyoto to Tokyo I spilled a cup of coffee on my laptop. This was totally stupid. I should know better than to have a liquid in a precarious cup in a cramped space with an open laptop. At least I had my good sports coat on a hook. What happened was that I shut my eyes and dozed a bit and suddenly woke up with a lapful of coffee and a wet laptop. I scrambled to get the liquid off the keyboard—shaking it, wiping it off with a handkerchief, blowing on it. A snappily dressed cabin female attendant on the train (I was traveling in a “Green Car”—basically first class—because it was only $30 more and easier to work in….and apparently doze off in as well) hurried over with wet towels and helped clean up my trousers. After the frenzy subsided I tried the laptop…
