December 26, 2011
We stopped at a rock shop to buy huge chunks of quartz and ogle the various exotic metamorphic minerals; as an igneous petrologist I wandered off and was promptly accosted by the resident cat.
Zion Rock & Gem and cat
Reply
Tag Archives: columnar basalt
Kegon no taki
September 7, 2011
The culmination of sightseeing in Tochigi-ken was at Kegon no taki, 華厳滝, a 97-meter tall waterfall rushing over cliffs of columnar basalt with a name with Buddhist sutra heritage. Continue reading
Samurai, Ninja, the 48 Waterfalls of Akame, and a long-voweled monster
A brief preview of what’s to come…
What’s more scary than double consonants in Japanese? Long vowels. Shorten a long vowel accidentally and you’re calling someone “devil” and not “older brother”, or worse. Sometimes I feel like the samurai Hanagami Danjo no jo Arakage fighting off a gigantic salamander when it comes to wrestling Japanese vowels.
The samurai Hanagami Danjo no jo Arakage in Izumo stabbing a giant salamander with his short sword, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.