霜柱は、わざと踏む派 　 　 　 　∧＿＿∧ 　 　 　（ ˘ ▽ ˘ ）　 　♪ 　 　 ﾉ　（　 　 　 ）　ヽ 　 　　　　|　　　|　 　 ｻﾞｸｯ 　＿＿　∪＿　| ' ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ 　 ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ､ ∪ヽ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ 　￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣

The ∪ on the right of the picture has sunk a whole row lower than the one on the left. Both are feet, borrowed from the math sign for set union. The left one sits on row 6, level with the line of ＿ that marks the surface of the soil. The right leg keeps going: its | shows up on row 5 and again on row 6, cutting through that line, and its foot lands on row 7, down among the frost. That row holds nineteen ¦, the broken bar, a vertical stroke with a gap in the middle, spaced a half-width apart almost across the whole picture. They are shimobashira, “frost pillars,” known in English as needle ice: on a freezing night, water in bare soil freezes at the surface and keeps drawing more water up from below, so the ice grows upward in thin columns and lifts a crust of soil. Hence the three layers: the crust ＿ on row 6, the pillars ¦ on row 7, and fourteen ￣ on row 8 as the ground beneath. Beside the sunken foot, the pillars turn into ､ and ヽ, short slanted strokes that have just snapped, and a tiny ' sits in the crack next to the leg like a chip of soil. On row 5, off to the right, ｻﾞｸｯ (zakku) in half-width katakana is the crunch. The stomper has ∧＿＿∧ ears and the face （ ˘ ▽ ˘ ）: each ˘ is a breve, the little cup some dictionaries put over short vowels, as in ă, here an eye narrowed with delight, and ▽ is a mouth wide open. A ♪ floats beside it, and on row 4 the arms ﾉ and ヽ angle down and out, as if for balance. The caption on row 1, 霜柱は、わざと踏む派, means roughly “Frost pillars? I'm on the step-on-them-on-purpose team.” A line of everyday chat over a tiny figure is a format from 2channel, the giant Japanese message board, and this small original AA was made for this site.