Random observations from the hotel room

As the final (hopefully) day of quarantine in Tokyo begins, here's a few observations from the hotel room.

I have slept more in the last three days than I have in the previous three months, or so it seems. The issue is that the hotel room is small, so there is nowhere to sit except for the hard desk chair or the bed. And if I get on the bed, I'm likely to fall asleep. I get up fairly early, but there's definitely been long mid-afternoon naps and since there's nothing to do, I don't really fight it too hard. I suppose I might as well get the sleep while I can.

Speaking of the hotel room, the bathroom has to be the smallest I've ever seen that is not located in a moving vehicle. There's barely room to turn around. And weirdly, I have to step up to get into the bathroom and then step down when I leave the bathroom. I am sure that the weird step is going to cause some sort of injury to me at some point. And, they also ask that when we use the shower, we keep the door closed because "the steam could trigger the fire alarm." Getting out of the shower it is like a sauna in that tiny little room.

One of the many differences with this Olympics is the fact that we must reserve spots in the media centers at the venues if we wish to cover an event. I wasn't allowed to make my requests until a day after my credentials were verified at the airport. I put in a lot of requests and so far, just one of them has been approved, so the good news is that I have at least one thing I can cover (assuming the COVID tests come back as they should). I am hoping that some more of those requests get approved, otherwise it might be a lot of sitting in the media center watching events and that's not something I'm terribly interested in doing.

In researching where I want to go and where I can possibly go, I have been using an app that Tokyo 2020 provided us that gives us all the transportation options from one location to another. It is incredibly helpful in planning if I can make it from one location to another in the amount of time I have to get there. Of course, that's all depending on how my applications for venue seating turn out.

A few things that have kept me occupied while I am sitting in my hotel room are the Red Sox games on the radio (SiriusXM app) and working on memorizing my lines for Laughing Stock, which is slated to open the weekend after I return to the US at the Village Players Theater. I've spent a lot of time browsing the internet, which is truly exciting and have been watching the Japanese broadcasts of the Olympics as well, which is also interesting.

I took my first COVID test since the airport yesterday. Tokyo 2020 staffers came right to the hotel and waited while I provided my saliva sample and registered it. They then took it and left me with a few more tests for the next two days. There's definitely a lot to these Olympics that wouldn't normally show up.