Alaskan Mountains
The flight from Boston to Tokyo is a 13-hour non-stop flight. It follows a "great circle route" by going north over Canada and Alaska before turning south to follow the coast of Russia to Japan. It was cloudy for much of the time, but when we reached the northern part of Alaska, the summits of the Brooks Range poked above the clouds. I have never seen as extensive a mountain range as this. It was magnificent, with innumerable peaks and ridges stretching for hundreds of miles. I have heard it said that most of the mountains of the world have never been climbed. Living in Boston, that seems ludicrous, but here, in Alaska, I can believe it. These mountains are so remote that you wonder if anyone has climbed any of then other than the highest. But even "smaller" peaks are dramatic to look at, with their sharp, jagged ridges. Magnificent.
The Brooks Range, Alaska
Snow-covered mountains in Alaska
"Silver Spoon" Anime
With 13 hours to kill on a Boeing 787, I wanted to watch something Japanese. My seat mate recommended a couple of TV shows, but they had no subtitles, so I tried an "anime" (a distinctive style of Japanese animation) entitled "Silver Spoon". It was about "A youthful school life story set at an agricultural high school in Hokkaido," the northernmost island of Japan and the most rural. I didn't know what to expect.
I was blown away. First of all, it was hilarious. The humor was spot-on. And it was sophisticated, even though its obvious audience was teenagers. Students who admitted they could not understand the first page of a junior-high mathematics textbook could talk accurately and in detail about the biochemistry of cloning farm animals, including the results of recent research. The show explored several themes: the pressure to live up to parental expectations (a daughter who will inherit a dairy farm but really wants to raise horses); the ethics of raising animals for milk (milk is first for calves, not people); can you love an animal that you know will be slaughtered for beef? All this and interpersonal relationships among teenagers. I was impressed.
Silver Spoon
Link to Wikipedia about Silver Spoon Anime.
The flight from Boston to Tokyo is a 13-hour non-stop flight. It follows a "great circle route" by going north over Canada and Alaska before turning south to follow the coast of Russia to Japan. It was cloudy for much of the time, but when we reached the northern part of Alaska, the summits of the Brooks Range poked above the clouds. I have never seen as extensive a mountain range as this. It was magnificent, with innumerable peaks and ridges stretching for hundreds of miles. I have heard it said that most of the mountains of the world have never been climbed. Living in Boston, that seems ludicrous, but here, in Alaska, I can believe it. These mountains are so remote that you wonder if anyone has climbed any of then other than the highest. But even "smaller" peaks are dramatic to look at, with their sharp, jagged ridges. Magnificent.
The Brooks Range, Alaska
Snow-covered mountains in Alaska
"Silver Spoon" Anime
With 13 hours to kill on a Boeing 787, I wanted to watch something Japanese. My seat mate recommended a couple of TV shows, but they had no subtitles, so I tried an "anime" (a distinctive style of Japanese animation) entitled "Silver Spoon". It was about "A youthful school life story set at an agricultural high school in Hokkaido," the northernmost island of Japan and the most rural. I didn't know what to expect.
I was blown away. First of all, it was hilarious. The humor was spot-on. And it was sophisticated, even though its obvious audience was teenagers. Students who admitted they could not understand the first page of a junior-high mathematics textbook could talk accurately and in detail about the biochemistry of cloning farm animals, including the results of recent research. The show explored several themes: the pressure to live up to parental expectations (a daughter who will inherit a dairy farm but really wants to raise horses); the ethics of raising animals for milk (milk is first for calves, not people); can you love an animal that you know will be slaughtered for beef? All this and interpersonal relationships among teenagers. I was impressed.
Silver Spoon
No comments:
Post a Comment