Flashes Of Nerd-dom

I used to watch reruns of Star Trek TOS when I was a kid. I loved it. The corniness of it all did not register with me in any way.

My interest waned over time. Today, I could watch an original series episode every now and then. Maybe a very well written next generation episode, maybe. I doubt I could sit through anything after that.

Yet on the bus today, original ST crossed my mind. I was thinking about Mr. Sulu. I always thought he was of Japanese descent (wasn't there some episode where he went nuts and thought he was a samurai or something?)... but it occured to me today that there is no "L" in the Japanese language. This was quite a conundrum for 7:45 in the morning.

Wikipedia explains it thus (Hikaru is his first name):

The character is meant to be of pan-Asian descent but raised in San Francisco. Hikaru is a Japanese name, while Sulu is taken from a province in the Philippines. Sulu is not a real Japanese name; in Japanese the consonants L and R are in free variation, and in the Japanese version of Star Trek, the character's name is changed to Kato. The closest equivalent to "Sulu" would be (suru) which means "to do" in Japanese.

Thanks again, Wikipedia.