Welcome to Tokyo

TOKYO -- Good morning.

Well, at least it's morning here in Tokyo, where the team arrived around midnight and two of your intrepid reporters arrived yesterday at about 8 p.m., after an epic journey that took us from Boston to Shreveport, La. (diverted from Dallas), to Detroit to Tokyo (with a missed connection to JFK between Detroit and Tokyo). We missed a flight, lost our bags, then found them again, and got here 24 hours later than planned.

So, while I'm sure none of you want to know our saga, the good news is I won't be forced into purchasing Hello Kitty attire for my first TV spot of the regular season.

Photographer Barry Chin reported last night that up until yesterday there were few Americans in the enormous hotel that we've taken up residence in. Now? Tons. The MLB contingent started trickling in yesterday, before the players arrived, and now it should be crawling with us Americans.

I'll be heading to the first media availability of the trip, this afternoon at the Tokyo Dome, where there will be press conferences with the Sox. The Red Sox (or at least some of them), meanwhile, are making a stop at an army base this morning before heading over to their home-away-from-home, which I've heard resembles the Metrodome.

Haven't yet been out of the hotel, given the late hour of our arrival, though I am already safely on Japan time with no jet lag yet. (For those of you wondering, it's 13 hours ahead of Boston time.) Our big discovery was that, at multiple terminals in the Narita airport, there is sumo wrestling on big screen TVs for the pleasure of the Narita traveler. If we hadn't been so focused on finding clothing, I'm sure we would have stopped to watch.

Also, at our clearly Americanized hotel restaurant (we barely had the strength to get food, let alone go for authenticity), I managed to get Curt Schilling's fortune in my fortune cookie (yes, yes, I know): "If your shoulder aches, exercise it."

Ah, words of wisdom for the day.