Thread: Anyone read Japanese kanji?

That's interesting. The person I got it from in Japan doesn't know either, he thought it might possibly be a name.

That's also something she mentioned, but the katakana would therefore make it pre-war. Interestingly, it seems that mineral names are commonly written in katakana. So it may make more sense than I thought.

Originally Posted by eKretz

That's interesting. The person I got it from in Japan doesn't know either, he thought it might possibly be a name.

If you had a nice hone in a barber shop would you mark it? I would.

Quarry men might mark their collection or the shop.
Old school shops in the states had a code for remembering cost and computing the price.
It could also be a reference to the prospect and mountain often a private joke as I have
seen used by fossil and mineral collectors and consignments to mineral collectors.
While I am overthinking this barbering, quarrying even shop keeper are not jobs
that require an large vocabulary education.

It says "one California roll, extra wasabi."

Actually I just heard back from a friend of my mother who has been studying Japanese for around 10 years now and he said it says "one big stone" and may have been marked that way for inventory purposes. I'm not sure if that's right though as two different native Japanese speakers couldn't tell me what it says. (Mike's wife and the guy who lives in Japan that I got it from).

What's the Japanese equivalent of Big Bertha?

In any case, looks like a score! Congrats!

The characters seem to be: 井上大ビキ
井上 = Inoue. Common family name.
大ビキ = Oobiki. Maybe a place name? Some google hits for Oobiki Island written with katakana "biki". Also some family names written this way as well.

Interesting, thanks!