Japan's new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, nicknamed "The Alien," on Thursday encountered astronaut Koichi Wakata, after his return to Earth in July from the International Space Station.
"Are you the alien?" asked the 62-year-old prime minister as he shook hands with Wakata, who visited his office in a blue jumpsuit.
"Oh no, I'm an earthman. I understand the prime minister is the alien," Wakata, 46, said with a big smile.
Hatoyama, a Stanford-trained engineering scholar, is known for his sometimes lofty and unconventional ideas that have earned him the nickname "The Alien," also a playful stab at his sometimes bulging eyes and bouffant hair.
His wife Miyuki, a lifestyle guru, has herself made space-related headlines, revealing that her soul had travelled in a triangular UFO to Venus.
Wakata, Japan's first astronaut to have visited space three times, spent 138 days on the space station, a record for a Japanese astronaut, returning to Earth with NASA's shuttle Endeavour on July 31.
He spent most of his space time in Japan's Kibo science laboratory and delighted Japanese earthlings by trying quirky zero-gravity challenges such as testing a "flying carpet," folding laundry and attempting to use eye drops.
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