Derek Bell said he felt “too strong,” and Rickey Henderson joked that he ran out of money.

Those were virtually the only semi-bad things anyone could say about the Mets’ trip to Japan.

While many players tried different methods to recover from jet lag, everyone felt good and they still had another day to recover before tomorrow’s home opener against the Padres.

“Naturally, you’re time clock is still a little off,” Mike Piazza said. “But I felt OK. As far as being on the field is concerned, I’m fine. You just have to suck it up. Hopefully I stay fine.”

Henderson stuck to his belief that the players should have gotten a reward for the trip.

“We should have gotten a little bit more money,” Henderson said with a laugh. “Things were more expensive over there than I thought. I think I’m broke. But I don’t feel as bad [physically] as I expected to feel.”

Manager Bobby Valentine, who also said he felt good, isn’t sure how everyone is going to feel come tomorrow.

“Some guys didn’t sleep as well as we would have liked,” Valentine said. “I think [today] is just as tell-tale a sign. My major concern was that we were going to come back and be stuck in the [batting] cage for three days, but we’ve got good weather. I’m very happy with the circumstances. We’ll have to look back on this to see how it really affected us.”

Valentine thinks it will take Todd Zeile “a couple of months” before he feels comfortable at first base. But Zeile feels he made a big step in Japan.

“I got my first error out of the way,” said Zeile, who worked with coach Cookie Rojas yesterday on throws in the dirt. “So I don’t have to worry about that.”

The lessons of former Met Keith Hernandez are still helping Zeile.

“The mistakes I’ve made are from being too aggressive,” Zeile said. “And that’s how I have to play. Keith reminds me of that. If he wasn’t telling me, I might get tentative and be more cautious.”

Zeile’s manager and teammates aren’t too concerned.

“He’s getting creative with left-handers and holding runners on,” Valentine said. “He looks good, but it takes time to develop as a unit.”

Although it was just a scoreboard test, the Mets gave a good indication of what their starting lineup will be:

Rickey Henderson, LF; Darryl Hamilton, CF; Edgardo Alfonzo, 2B; Mike Piazza, C; Robin Ventura, 3B; Derek Bell, RF; Todd Zeile, 1B; Rey Ordonez, SS; Al Leiter, P.

“That’s probably it,” Valentine said.