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
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Tag Archives: basalt
Fuji-san: descent (下山)
September 11, 2011
After a hike up in the dark and a tour around the summit caldera in the morning light, we descended (下山, “ge”, down + “san”, mountain) from the summit of Fuji-san. A brilliant blue sky arched overhead; clouds of all sorts of morphologies stretched below. We took a different route down the mountain than the one we used to ascend, this version of the Yoshida Trail sporting a plethora of switchbacks.
Torii, studded with coins, marked the entrance to the summit.
Fuji-san: summit
September 11, 2011
我々はついに富士山頂に達した！ After climbing Fuji-san all night in the dark until sunrise, all of the JAXA folks who started made it to the top! Morita-san had a harder time than he’d anticipated, so upon reaching the top he promptly turned around and jetted back down the mountain. The rest of us followed Dan-chan clockwise around the caldera rim.
The thing that impressed me most about the summit of Fuji-san was the diversity of basalt colors: red, black, brown, ochre, yellow, grey. These rocks are at least a thousand years old, and over the millennia, they maintained their intense hues.
We were trying to spell out JAXA but the cold had addled our brains.
Fuji-san: climbing in the dark
September 10-11, 2011
山頂が雲の上にそびえている。 My first view of Fuji-san (富士山, “abundant soldiers”, “without equal”, or “immortal”, depending on what origin you believe) was through the window of Hayashiya-san’s car. The caldera of the volcano emerged from clouds in the distance, suddenly dominating the view.
