Can't Read My, Can't Read My, No You Can't Read My 岡 Face!

The abandoned Arzviller station

The old canal we followed yesterday is flanked by the Zorn river and the Strasbourg to Sarrebourg railway. Trains call at Lutzelbourg and/or Réding, while, half-way in between and opposite lock n°6, sits Arzviller station - actually located on the territory of Saint-Louis - closed. Shockingly, I can't find when it was closed (one source suggests the 1980s, though in my mind it was more recent).

Going from the canal to the station requires dropping down to the level of the Zorn river, crossing it, and going under the railway and road. There is a very dark underpass, but if you look closely and sport the light switch... Club Vosgien, the association which manages hiking trails in the Vosges mountains, literally shines through with this installation!

Given that Arzviller station is closed, and not wanting to tread the same ground twice, I decided to walk from one station to the next, Réding to Lutzelbourg, and I can't recommend the part from Réding to Arzviller: not signposted for hikers, really requiring a map if you're trying to avoid roads... and the only real highlight is the chance to glimpse the twin canal & railway tunnels: boats and trains enter and exit together at the West end (no boats on the day I visited though).

The Osaka Monorail

The final post in this mini-series on the Osaka Expo 70 Commemoration Park is the obvious: how does one get there? Considering the Expo was all about bringing together the world's shared (or non-shared) visions of the future, the Monorail seems perfect! Except this line wasn't launched in time for the Expo - it was a later project, opened in 1990.

The straddle-beam monorail links Osaka Airport to Kadoma, and is due to be extended by the end of the decade. A short branch line pops out just to the East of the Expo 70 Park station, so a visit to the park is also a chance to see some mighty impressive sets of monorail points either side of the station, as the West side (above) also connects to the depot.

Sangaku Sunday #7

We're back with a new problem from Miminashi-yamaguchi-jinja! This is going to be more ambitious than the first one, though it won't be much harder from a geometry standpoint - the main tool will still be Pythagoras's theorem. But we really need to set the stage for this one.

Consider an isosceles triangle, with two circles whose diameters are on the height from the apex, tangent to each other, and so that the top circle passes through the apex and the bottom circle is tangent to the base. We seek to draw one more circle on either side, which is tangent to the first two, and tangent to two sides of the triangle.

Details and first questions below the cut.

The triangle is given: it is an isosceles triangle SNN'. For the sake of simplicity, let's shrink or blow up the figure so that the height SO is equal to 1 (for a configuration with height h, we will just need to multiply all the lengths by h). The length of the base NN' is therefore the fixed parameter of the problem, and, as the figure is symmetric with respect to SO, we only need to set the length ON as our parameter: set ON = b. Hence, we are working in the right triangle SON.

The problem involves finding the three circles that fit the configuration in SON. Let these circles have respective centres A, B and C, and respective radii p, q and r. The radii are the unknowns of our problem, and we need to find three independent relations between them to solve. From the sketch, it looks like there should be only one solution.

The first relation is obvious: 2*(p+q) = 1, as the diameters of the first two circles form the height SO. This is also very easy to solve: if we have p, then q = 1/2 - p.

A second relation must start to involve r. For this, project the centre of the third circle onto SO and ON, calling these projections P and Q respectively. Now we get to two questions for you to munch on.

1: Prove that

2: Get the lengths AC and PA. Deduce another expression for PC, and prove that

With that, we just need another equation to find p, and we'll be done.

As any jagged coastline should, Shionomisaki has a lighthouse. Many were built across Japan during the modernisation of the Meiji era, and Kushimoto town has two.

After passing through the shrine in this picture, a trail continues to the left to a cape out of frame. People from the nearby port of Koza would go out there to watch for the arrival of pods of whales when their migration was due, and return home to basically say that hunting season had begun.

As such, Shionomisaki has always had a bit of a lookout role. And, according to the Akari no Moribito story, this guy below will be looking out for us against the forces of darkness in the future! The project has aimed to give all of Japan's main lighthouses a character, complete with a voice actor! I don't understand much, but on the surface, I think it's neat.

My favourite cherry blossom spot in Strasbourg is the Citadelle. The remains of the garrison built under Louis XIV are now a gorgeous park by the Rhône-Rhine canal, and the cherry blossoms there are of the variety that bloom into pompoms.

I haven't been to the park this year, only spotting from a distance that the trees are currently in bloom, somewhat earlier than usual. So here are some pictures from a previous year - the year I first saw this wonderful tree at the ruin's entrance.

Japan Weekend coming up!

This weekend, in fact! Every April, Strasbourg hosts some ekiden running races, and a festival of Japanese culture on the side. Taiko drums, shamisen, martial art demos including kyûdô and aikidô, Japan-inspired artists, food... and games like shôgi and mah-jong, the latter of which I will be partaking in as a member of the Strasbourg club. So if perchance you are in Strasbourg this weekend, pop by!

Contrasted sunset on Shinji-ko

On the south side of Matsue, there is a famous sunset-viewing spot, overseeing the "great lake" mentioned by Kitty-chan on the train, which would be Shinji-ko, and a small island inhabited only by a torii, called Yomegajima.

It's so famous, that there's a sign to tell you where to stand to get the Sun over the island depending on the season!

While the sunset was gorgeous on the evening I was there (last year to the day), there was also something ominous. To the left in the top photo, one can make out some rain hiding the horizon... and to the South, a thunderstorm was active in the hills.

Still, the showers were kind enough to hold back for us to see the Sun set between the cloud layer and the mountains. But they soon caught up - as soon as I stepped off the bus at Matsue station, it chucked it down!

A few bugs seen this summer!

The East side of Île de la Table Ronde is the noisy side, with the motorway running on the opposite side of the river. It's also the side with the widest walking track, and it was teeming with grasshoppers! I noticed a couple had landed on my shirt and were just chilling (maybe interested in eating the fabric? I'm thinking of locusts, aren't I). @teamroquette took the photos as I was unsure how much I could move without them jumping off. Turns out they were really chill.

Other critters seen this summer include some seen at Oberkirch: bees working on flowers, that's a classic, and... some less fortunate insects.

Bonus - posted here because my sister will kill me if I post this on Instagram where she can see it: a spider hanging out by Nonnenmattweiher lake.

Kaub

A few kilometres down the Rhine from Bacharach and on the other side, is the small town of Kaub. Its main attraction is the Pfalzgrafenstein, a remarkable, vaguely boat-shaped "castle" in the middle of the river. I use the term "castle" a bit loosely, as it wasn't a feudal lord's residence, rather a customs office on the river, with Gutenfels in the background providing a wider watch. A tollgate, basically. Sidenote, if you find other photos of this place, you'll notice how low the Rhine is right now...

While Burg Gutenfels in the hills has been converted into a hotel, not unlike Burg Stahleck discussed last time, the Pfalzgrafenstein has been preserved, and is open as a museum on some days of the week, with a small ferry allowing visitors to get there. Beside that, a car ferry runs all day between the two banks of the Rhine, so I could easily cross to quickly walk around Kaub.

Like a lot of riverside towns and villages in the area, Kaub is a charming place with many old buildings. It provides a picturesque backdrop to all the traffic going by, boats and trains, and the Rechte Rheinstrecke, the railway line between Wiesbaden and Koblenz on the right-hand side of the Rhine, was seeing more trains than usual, as the section between Mainz and Bingen on the Linke Rheinstrecke was closed. Long-distance trains, like this international EuroCity service bound for Zürich, were (and at time of writing probably still are) diverted via Kaub.

The fortifications of Wissembourg

From one fortified town to another, just South of the current French-German border: Wissembourg. In a region rife with conflict, between cities and lords, sometimes between a city and their own lord, protective walls, moats and towers around the town were a must.

This tower, called the Poudrière, was built in the 13th century, and served as gunpowder storage at some point, hence the name. The walls in front of it are more recent, dating back to the 16th century, featuring a dam system which would flood the moat if needed. This complex can be seen in the North-East corner of the town on this 1750 map.

Despite these protections, Wissembourg suffered massively between the 15th and 17th centuries. And in spite of all that, the town centre retains much of its original plan and many traditional buildings. I should go back on a nicer day to get better pictures...