Getting toward the end

Alright… it’s Thursday.  Yesterday my boss’s boss’s boss Dave arrived in Tokyo, so we got our first true read-out on our progress.  John B had been pleased for the whole time we’ve been here, but we knew that given the fact that Dave & the Tokyo boss had worked out the trip details they’d be the ones to tell us if we were on the right track.  We met with Dave at 3p and ran through the entire set of work we’ve done…

… and he was happy.  There were only a couple of small edits and he agreed that we were in exactly the right place.  That means we continued to fine tune things the rest of Wednesday evening, will spend all day Thursday doing the same thing, then we’ll spend 3 hours on Friday presenting our findings and recommendations.  That presentation will be for Dave, Antony (Tokyo boss), John B, and the majority of the operations staff.  We expect to have a pretty reasonable discussion of the material.

I’ve struggled with my workout the past couple of days – probably because I’m not eating to the plan nearly as well I hoped or would be at home.  My sleep hasn’t been fantastic either – I am usually awake until 11p or 12a, much later than normal, and then I’m sleeping until 8a, again later than normal.  The bed is nice, but the pillows are odd… maybe the bed is too soft.  I feel pretty sore in my back which I’m attributing to the bed in some degree.

I’m beginning to get pretty excited about coming home now that I know the flight is (basically) 100% locked-in for Saturday.  I took some time last night and this morning to begin packing my luggage.  It’s been a nice trip and I wish I could have done more, but now that I know I’m about to go home, I’m ready for it.  My video call with Olivia this morning was about the best we’ve had – she was really interested in talking to me which is a change from previous calls.  I explained I’d be home soon, but then I realized for her it’s not really… it’s still only Wednesday there.  I did get reminded, though, that my arrival time is pretty reasonable – 7:30p – so I’ll actually get to see them both without having to wake them up.

My goal is to see Patrick again, taking the trip out there on Friday evening.  Unfortunately Patrick is in Yokohama and apparently President Obama will be in Yokohama as well.  I’m hoping that either due to my chosen mode of transport (train) or my timing (early evening) I won’t encounter too much trouble.

JFD team… we’re nearly that magical day 60 where we’re in the last part.  Patrick’s email about grinding through the sets sure is timely…