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Had a great time in Nagasaki this past week. The transport system was convenient, yet intensely crowded. I’m used to crowded transit in Tokyo, but in Tokyo it somehow works better due to the incredible level of efficiency necessary in a city of so many millions. It was very shocking to me how used to Tokyo I’ve become. The so-called “freaks” who are Tokyoites have for me become so much the norm, that to see the “normal” people of Nagasaki was an abruptly confounding experience. I mean, guys look and act like guys – that’s really freakishly bizarre after living in Tokyo!
Although it was too windy for the ropeway to work it’s way up the Mount Inasa when we tried at first, the view was great when we finally made it. The night view was splendid. The weather was a bit difficult for most of the time, but it did adhere to the norm in that it was too cold when we didn’t have a jacket and too hot when we did. Nearby our hotel was the Glover Garden, which they apparently pronounce as Clover Garden, and which I only realized later was Glover Garden. He was a Scot who was instrumental in the city history and the education of Japanese in western science and humanities. It’s the first historic garden park I’ve ever been to with escalators. Convenient! There is also the sobering Atomic Bomb museum and the peace park with it’s statue pointing to the earth and to the heavens warning what may come from above.
Outside the city we went to Huis ten Bosch which is basically a fake Dutch city theme park. It was pleasant, but deserted at the time. It’s about the price of Tokyo Disneyland (5000ish yen) and has some museums and a canal boat ride in keeping with the Holland aesthetic. A Dutch location in Nagasaki itself is Dejima, a preserved trading post where you can explore the living quarters and storage areas.
We also got the chance to see the new Star Trek at a branch of Toho Cinemas they have there. It was good, but royally disturbed the red letter established history, preferring action over respect for the Trek continuum. Of course, that should not be surprising considering that JJ Abrams character.

The Star Trek movie comes out in Japan next Friday and I’m really looking forward to it. A classmate was in New York for the premier and said it’s great. In the mean time (and this will be a bit longer than the release as something even more exciting has come up – a visit to Nagasaki) this is a relatedly stupid meme result:

Your results:
You are Jean-Luc Picard

Jean-Luc Picard 65% Deanna Troi 60% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 60% Spock 50% Chekov 50% Mr. Sulu 50% Data 42% Geordi LaForge 40% Will Riker 40% Worf 40% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 35% Mr. Scott 35% Uhura 25% Beverly Crusher 25% James T. Kirk (Captain) 20%

A lover of Shakespeare and other fine literature. You have a decisive mind and a firm hand in dealing with others.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

Lost creator JJ Abrams has unveiled footage from his Star Trek prequel at a press event in London.

via BBC NEWS.

Whelp, not much … Hot bath (in my 5 bathtub capacity Japanese fixture), chocolate, strawberries, ST:TNG.

I didn’t realize that one of my fav trek episodes where the captain is stuck on a planet with a people that speak only in allusion … the captains story is the (very very condensed) Gilgamesh epic of a mythical Sumarian king of around 2700BC … a poem from Mesopotamia and among the earliest known literary works which are now extant only on 12 clay tablets from the 7th century Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.

Gilgamesh, a king. At Uruk. He tormented his subjects. He made them angry. They cried out aloud, “Send our king a companion! Spare us from his madness!” Enkidu, a wild man from the forest, entered the city. They fought in the temple. They fought in the street. Gilgamesh defeated Enkidu. They became great friends. Gilgamesh and Enkidu, at Uruk. The new friends went out into the desert together where the Great Bull of Heaven was killing men by the hundreds. Enkidu caught the Bull by the tail; Gilgamesh struck him with his sword. Killed him. They were victorious. But Enkidu fell to the ground, struck down by the gods. And Gilgamesh wept bitter tears, saying, “He who was my companion through adventure and hardship, is gone forever …”

Hmm … Does my interest just make me a bigger geek … or is this something worse?