Movie past, vacation future

We saw Batman Begins, which was, in many ways, better than expected. Props to Gary Oldman, chronic chameleon, who I didn't even realize was in the movie until his name showed up in the closing credits.

We saw it in Odaiba, which we've explored somewhat before, and a couple of friends took us through a genuinely disturbing part of town, where a mall is made up to make the inside look like the outside. The ceiling over the hallway is painted and lit up to look like a pleasantly blue, partly cloudy sky. The corridors are given street names and marked with street signs. Walking around in that place is very uncomfortable, for some reason that's difficult to articulate--possibly the fact that the "sky" is maybe half a dozen meters away lends to a sense of claustrophobia. I have this great idea for an experiment, though--raise a kid in that place for the first 10 years of his life, act as if the fake sky is the real sky, and then take him out into the real outdoors and see what happens.

We also finally saw I Heart Huckabees, which I thought was marvelous, but Kate found a little too weird. I must admit, it really could have done without one or two of those scenes. Nonetheless, David O. Russell is a genius, and given that he was also responsible for Three Kings he's moving his way up my list of favourite movie makers.

We've decided on one last trip around Japan, to revisit Hiroshima, and maybe some other places like the Aichi Expo, starting August 3. We'll try to make the ceremony for the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, and I'll have to drag my butt out of bed in order to make it to the Peace Park by 8:15. We might take a whole week off, in which case we'd have time for Nagasaki as well, but that would start to get a little pricy. Later in August, starting maybe on the 24th, we'll be taking a nice long holiday in China, lasting for about two weeks. We're definitely going to tour around Beijing, but we haven't decided what to do after that.

After that, back to Tokyo, but I'll probably be leaving soon after. If I take off around September 14 or 15, I'll have time to drop in on Canada and collect some stuff to take to Chicago. I'm hoping to get there by September 20, in time for Orientation--I'm not sure how useful it will be, but I hear they serve free food.

Tiptoeing toward Chicago

I received two pieces of mail from the University of Chicago. So now I've set up my email account there, and I have to start thinking about health insurance. Ah, American health insurance, how it frightens me! The plan offered by the University seems OK, and a little less heartless than I might have feared. But I'm still haunted by memories of Americans telling me they suspected themselves of having, say, diabetes, but didn't want to see a doctor because of the expense. And we're not talking the expense of the potential treatment, just the expense of the check up.

It's a kind of magic!

I wasted way too much time on Magic: The Gathering during a couple of years in the middle of my undergrad, and eventually swore off of it after I got fed up with the way they kept ratcheting up the power level. Recently, though, I got back into it, and I've dragged Kate with me. Bwaha.

I'd call it a guilty pleasure, were it not for the price, that being absolutely free. Every Wednesday we go play Magic in a pizza joint in Takadanobaba, and the Japanese rep for Wizards of the Coast provides the cards. He also pays for our food and drink, and invites us to pay "whatever we think is fair". Unfortunately we're Canadian, and cheating him wouldn't be polite. But that's OK, because this card, which I received for free, and now own, is being sold in local gaming stores for about C$30.

It's a closed deck "tournament", where your cards are limited to one starter and (up to) two boosters. Antes are exchanged after every match, but no trading is allowed, which makes it extremely difficult to put together a coherent deck, let alone an effective one. My deck was recently dubbed by a number of opponents as "annoying", which delights me to no end, as my highest priority when playing Magic is indeed to annoy my opponent, with the goal of actually winning coming in at a distant second. It's based on a small fleet of Moonfolk, Sakura-Tribe Scouts, and a few stompy cards like Okina Nightwatch and O-naginata. The vast majority of people who read this post will have no idea what that means, but one or two people I know, as well as maybe some random passersby, will detect a hint of decent synergy. 10 points of trample per turn by mid-game, with opposing creatures popping out of existence every turn, is usually enough to win the day. I recently picked this up in ante--Mirror Mage plus Scouts plus Freed From the Real equals a whole lot of bouncing going on! Excelsior!

OK, enough of that. Back to real life. Plans for the rest of the summer and the first bit of fall coming soon.

Japan, France working on new supersonic jet

Maybe I'll have a faster trip home? 6 hours from New York to Tokyo - phew! Sure beats the 11 or so it took from Vancouver!

More on Burma from the BBC

Burma rebuilding risks Pagan jewel

Coincidentally enough (or maybe not) Pagan is the same area that we wrote about in our letter to Metropolis. My mind is somewhat boggled by ideas such as Hundreds of brand new pagodas built with brick and concrete on top of ancient ruins. Looks like the junta isn't just evil, it's also amazingly stupid. While they're at it, maybe they can stick some plastic "flare" onto the temples to make them more interesting to look at, or build some waterslides around them and turn the place into a theme park. Hell, just knock everything down and build a Vegas-style casino--that's what the tourists really want!

It's interesting to note that the BBC has opted for the name "Burma" rather than "Myanmar". Does that indicate solidarity with the Burmese opposition, or nostalgia for the good old days of British Imperialism?

Tokyo is a big city

Tony, former fellow philosophy student/"cut-up", is currently touring around Japan looking at bright lights, shrines, and the like. He crashed at our place a couple of nights, and although our work schedule interfered somewhat, we were still able to take him around town a little bit, mostly Shibuya and Roppongi Hills. We went up the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills (first time for all of us), and took in the "City View" (from the 50th floor, the only thing in view is city, city, and more city) and Mori Art Museum--a pretty good museum, insofar as it managed to hold my interest pretty much the whole way through (I'm not much of a museum person).

I've decided that showing people around Tokyo for the first time is pretty neat; it helps remind you how awesome the city is after you've gotten used to it. A great moment was when, after leaving a Shibuya izakaya and walking 2 or 3 blocks under the cover of the concrete jungle plus an umbrella, Tony caught a glimpse of the sky, and only then realized that it was night time.

JULY 15!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE BSG (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) SEASON 2 PREMIERE!