Posted on by Ian O'Neill

UFOs, a Green Venus and Sun Gobbling? Isn’t That Going a Little Far, Mrs Hatoyama?

[/caption]“While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus.”

This might sound like a quote taken from the ramblings of a conspiracy theorist or the chant from someone who spent an hour too many at an Amsterdam coffee shop, but it wasn’t.

Actually, these are the words of the wife of the Japanese premier-in-waiting Yukio Hatoyama.

Mrs Miyuki Hatoyama might be married to a man Japan nicknames “The Alien,” but it looks like it’s not him who has dreams of an extraterrestrial nature…

If there’s one thing politicians must dread when they are voted into a position of power, it’s the past. Previous indiscretions, past conversations, old business that involved major campaign donors; all of these must keep many government ministers awake at night, worried that the media will dig up some dirt.

However, in the case of the soon-to-be prime minister of Japan (who won the recent elections with a landslide victory), it’s his 66-year old wife who wrote something last year in a book called Very Strange Things I’ve Encountered, that’s causing a stir. But through his wife’s own admission, Yukio Hatoyama is an open minded fellow and probably won’t be concerned about what the public may think of Miyuki’s book.

Very Strange Things documents Mrs Hatoyama’s experiences 20 years ago when a UFO picked her up and took her to Venus. “It was a very beautiful place and it was really green,” she observed.

If by “green” she actually means “dark brown,” and by “beautiful” she means “a tropical, bone crushing atmosphere, stuffed with poisonous gas and a landscape resembling hell,” then I think Miyuki really did fly there.

Naturally, after she had her joyride to Venus, Miyuki arrived back in bed, next to her now ex-husband who told her it was just a dream.

In addition to her night-time jaunts around the Solar System, Miyuki also partakes in a little solar feast every now and again. On a Japanese TV show earlier this year, Miyuki went into some detail about her spiritualistic beliefs.

“I also eat the sun,” she said on the program, closing her eyes, pulling pieces off an imaginary Sun. “Like this, hum, hum, hum. It gives me enormous energy […] My husband has recently started doing that too.”

This all seems like a lot of fun, but what does this mean for Japan? As noted by Keith Cowing over at NASA Watch, perhaps we’ll see a boost in JAXA (the Japanese space agency) funding. It might also go some way to explaining why there’s been a surge of interest in Japanese space solar power!

Things might go a little too far if we start seeing JAXA UFO patrols in low-Earth orbit, but for now, I suspect it’s going to be a rather flamboyant term in office for the Hatoyama’s…

Sources: Reuters, NASA Watch, Time

17 Replies to “UFOs, a Green Venus and Sun Gobbling? Isn’t That Going a Little Far, Mrs Hatoyama?”

  1. Maybe she can work out a deal with Frito Lay:

    New Sun-flavored Sun Chips(tm)! Made with whole grains and Real Solar Plasma! We guarantee you’ll never eat anything this hot again! (Even if you survive!!!)

  2. “I also eat the sun,” she said on the program, closing her eyes, pulling pieces off an imaginary Sun. “Like this, hum, hum, hum. It gives me enormous energy […] My husband has recently started doing that too.”

    *FACEPALM*

  4. Facepalm about says it all. it is curious that people would continue to think Venus is some sort of habitable place. it is most torrid hell of a planetary surface in the solar system.

    Back in the 1950s some microwave horned antennas were pointed at Venus. The place had a microwave signature matching a black body curve tail for a T between 500 and 900K. Even then people persisted with models of Venusian surface as a tropical paradise.

    I suppose we need to get some probes and rovers down on the surface there. That would be a lot harder than on Mars. The engineering problems with heat and pressure are formidable.

    Then again maybe the Venusians are fooling our sensors to conceal their planetary Sangri La from us 🙂

    LC

  5. As pointed out on a previous thread, there are two types of UFO observers. The first group take the term literally – they saw an unidentified flying object and leave it at that, no extraterrestrial explanation implied or observed. The second group not only observes UFOs, but also know what planet or star system these ‘presumed aliens’ originated and usually contain way too much over-the-top explanations or details of exactly what was observed or deduced from the barest of details. I believe Yukio Hatoyama may belong to the latter group (and sure says something about the lack of scientific and technical education even in first-world countries).

    Oh well, even Nancy Reagan consulted astrologers while her husband was president, so go figure 🙂

  6. “Out of the body” experience to a parallel universe? Hmmm, could be?

    Shamanistic revivalist anyone?

  8. Lawrence B. Crowell:

    I suppose we need to get some probes and rovers down on the surface there. That would be a lot harder than on Mars. The engineering problems with heat and pressure are formidable.

    From Wikipedia — Venera-D:

    The Venera-D (Russian: ??????-?) probe is a proposed Russian space probe to Venus, to be launched around 2016. Venera-D’s prime purpose is to make remote-sensing observations around the planet Venus in a manner similar to that of the U.S. Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s, but with the use of more powerful radar. Venera-D is also intended to map future landing sites. A lander, based on the Venera design, is also planned, capable of surviving for a long duration on the planet’s surface.

    Venera-D is the first Russian-built probe to Venus (all past “Venera” probes were launched by the former Soviet Union). Venera-D will serve as the flagship for a new generation of Russian-built Venus probes, culminating with a lander capable of withstanding the harsh Venusian environment for more than the 1½ hours logged by the Soviet-era probes. In order to keep research and development costs down, the new Venera-D probe will most likely resemble the Soviet-era probes, but will rely on new technologies developed by Russia since its last Venus missions (Vega 1 and Vega 2 in 1985). Venera-D will most likely be launched on the venerable Proton booster, but may be designed to be launched on the more powerful Angara rocket instead.

    Venera-D will follow on the coat-tails of the Phobos-Grunt mission, the first Russian Mars mission since the 1990s.

    COOL! (metaphorically speaking.)

  9. Err… the system here did not recognize the Cyrillic text for Venera-D — hence the “??????-?” above.

  10. Getting a robot or probe to move around on Venus would be far more difficult. The Russian probes are shielded enough to last for a short while. I suppose a nuclear powered heat pump to cool the interior is what would be required for a long duration exploration probe on the surface. Venus is a tough bitch.

    LC

  11. In Cyrillic it would be something like Benepa. Sort of.

    I studied Russian for a couple of years.

  12. Lawrence B. Crowell:

    I suppose a nuclear powered heat pump to cool the interior is what would be required for a long duration exploration probe on the surface.

    I was thinking of that, too; however, in order for the heat-pump to work, the radiator would have to operate at a temperature well above that of the Venusian environment.

  13. The radiator would be hot enough to glow. Also as the temperature difference becomes large the efficiency of heat pumps is diminished.

    I would not expect a venusian rover any time soon. It means the surface geology will remain largely elusive, except at a few spots where quick analysis might be done.

    LC

  14. If ever a Venusian rover is built, it would be appropriate to name it Salamander — the mythical creature which was thought capable of living in or withstanding fire.

  15. I would have to agree with LBC and IVAN3MAN, We’re probably quite a number of years from seeing a successful Venusian rover. As LBC says, Venus is a “tough bitch”

    @John Hanford, i couldn’t agree more with your classification of UFO observers. Perhaps Ms. Hatoyama actually did visit Venus, and the atmospheric pressure affected her cognitive abilities.

  17. “While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus.”

    Like when I was asleep last night, my soul drove over to Cote de Pablo’s house and we made sweet sweet love all night long. Then my soul bought a lottery ticket, which I won, and then I single handedly funded my very own 100m-class telescope which I proceeded to observe through with an eyepiece! Amazingly, while I was observing, Stephen Segal appeared out of nowhere and I proceeded to have a knife fight with him – man that guy is weak. I has his number in two minutes flat.

    It was all frigging amazing. The only thing that sucks is that my soul only seems to be able to travel when I’m asleep. That sucks, because everything seems a bit hazy – a bit like a like a dream – when I wake up the next day.

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