Random Craziness from Japan

In this article, there is a list titled "Scenes from Japan..." with random tidbits of the weird and funny things that have been going on across the ocean. Here are a few of the most interesting ones:

• Both David Ortiz and Daisuke Matsuzaka wore eyeglasses when they participated in the breaking of the sake barrel at an official welcoming party Friday night. "I'd never seen Dice-K with glasses," said Tom Werner. "It worried me a little. Maybe he needs glasses."
• Japan is an on-time nation. When the Sox first arrived at their hotel last Friday just before 2 a.m., they waited for bags to be delivered from the airport. At 2:25 a.m., Tim Wakefield, J. D. Drew and several other players were in the hotel's lower lobby, waiting for baggage when an official told them that the bags would be arriving in five minutes. Assuming this meant another hour, several players turned for the elevators and went to bed. "No," said a Japanese man. "This is a Japanese five minutes, not an American five minutes." Five minutes later, the bags arrived.
• There are heated toilet seats in the Sox hotel and Dustin Pedroia told teammates he wants to get one when he returns to the states.
• Tipping just isn't done in Tokyo. Waiters, cab drivers and housekeepers expect to get stiffed. It's the anti-New York experience.
• At the train stop near the Sox hotel, unlocked bicycles stand in bike racks all day long. It's the same with umbrellas. Locals leave them outside train stations and they are still there when the folks come back outside. Like we were saying, the anti-New York.
• There was a cantaloupe on sale for close to $100 in a food store in the Sox hotel.
• The off-campus restaurant menu offered sweet shrimp with mixed shrimp guts, chopped squid arms, raw horse meat and broiled prime beef stomach.

I hope you enjoyed those--I know I did (except for the last one)!