I have a letter here that I am writing for you. I went into a cave last Wednesday on my winter vacation. Luckily, I had my handy-dandy camera handy. Dandily. Here is a thing:
I believe it's just a big stalagtite, but other people have called it a flowstone column. [Update: Thanks to yesterday's copious cave research, I know that it's definitely a stalagtite plus a stalagmite (or just a column). Flowstone isn't even the same kind of speleothem, of course.] The cave I went in, by the way, was Akiyoshido, part of the largest cave system in Japan. Everything in Japan is either the largest, the oldest, the largest/oldest wooden example of its type, the best, the thinnest, the slipperiest, the most secret, and so on. Call it Japanese exceptionalism: every city, village or speck on the map finds the one superlative thing they've got going on, and pours all their energy into making it even better and then promoting it. I'm keeping a list:
Most x Things In Japan
Every category you can think of has a leading example somewhere in this country, and each one of these standouts is championed by its hometown. All of them—all—draw crowds of tourists. Here's what I've got so far:- Aquarium, Biggest: Osaka
- Building, Tallest: Yokohama
- Building (coastal), Tallest: Fukuoka Tower
- Caldera in the World, Largest: Aso Caldera, on Kumamoto island
- Ferris Wheel, Largest: Claimed by both Osaka and Tokyo
- Ferris Wheel, Biggest: Odaiba
- Ferris Wheel, Highest: Fukuoka
- Noodles (ramen), Best: Hakata ward, Fukuoka
- Noodles (udon), Best: Takamatsu
- [Noodles (soba), Best]: TBD, but I'm sure they're out there
- Poisonous Blowfish, Most Poisonous but still edible: Kanazawa
- Poisonous Blowfish, Least Poisonous: Usuki
- Poisonous Blowfish, Best Overall: Shimonoseki
- Preserved Squid, Largest: Tottori Prefectural Museum, ("also home to a live giant salamander")
- Suspension Bridge in the World, Longest: Akazhi
- Surviving Building in Sapporo, Oldest: Tokeidai
- Tourist Attraction in Japan, "Most Disappointing": Also Tokeidai
- Telescope, Largest: Saji Astro Park, Takayama
- Wooden Building, Biggest (Volume): Nara
- Wooden Building, Biggest (Height and Base): Izumo Dome
This is my favorite picture of the day, I think. On a side note, that red blob to the left? that's flowstone. The cave was chilly, and brightly lit in this section, but got hot, dank and dark further on.
After I took this picture, I couldn't get rid of the idea of something crawling on the roof of the cave using those ceiling fingers as handholds. It wasn't a creepy mental image, just persistent, even when I was in completely different-looking parts of the cave. This place was a stop on the way to Hiroshima, which also I'm trying to write a post about, but it might take me a while to get all my thoughts in order for that.
Here's the bridge to nowhere. Actually, the whole cave is in the middle of nowhere, so it's really just nowhere infrastructure. Those pools are the strangest formation in the whole cave. I'd love for someone to explain how they form. They're the flat, cloverleaf-shaped basins with high walls of perfecftly regular thickness and height, arranged in cascading terraces. I can see how the outline of the basin could be deposited, but why the high walls? Why are the walls so perfectly flat and regular? Tricks, I tells ya. Well they can't fool me. [Update: Still can't fool me, but maybe they are rimstone dams? More tricks.]
Fin.
So what's the news? Fill me in. Not the U of T news, I'm pretty on top of that, though I am thinking the $59 million shortfall at U of A is something I'd like to hear more about. Listen, you need to do something for me. I need you to cut and paste some stuff for me at the Great Varsity C/P mashup. Just a thing or two. Yell at me over email, we can collaborate. As with all things involving scissors, the more frantic, the better.
Yikes. I can't sleep a whole lot in Japan, so right now I'm kind of prepared to trail off and go make tea. Your thoughts on this? Oh, by the way, did you get the thing I sent you? My parents had to carry it back to Toronto after Canada Post ballsd things up trying to deliver it.
That is all from me. See you soon,
- André
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