Let's start with a quiz. Match the numbered words with the lettered definitions on the right. To help you out, I've supplied the usual meanings of the kanji in blue:
On the ferry from Okayama to Shodoshima, I walked into a room not meant for me. The sight of a urinal was a huge clue that things were not quite right. Fortunately, no one else was around.
I...
To tour Shodoshima, the second largest island in the Seto Inland Sea, my husband and I hired a driver for the day. I knew beforehand that he would speak no English, and I worried about how well we...
Ah, where to start? What a whirlwind trip I took to Japan! In a little more than a week, I hung out (usually for long periods) with 14 people, including four proofreaders, th...
Eons ago, I went to hear novelist Rita Mae Brown read. When someone asked for advice on becoming a writer, Brown said, "Learn as many languages as you can. Once you do, you'll understand t...
Just this week, three Facebook friends posted pictures of run-ins with wild creatures: a black bear in New Hampshire, a venomous cottonmouth snake in Alabama, and a possible coyote in California. I...
Let's start with a quiz. What three trees do the Japanese associate with happiness?
a. peach, plum, and apple b. cherry, Japanese maple, and cedar c. pin...
This week brought news of another security breach. This time people reportedly hacked into LinkedIn, accessing the passwords of more than 6.4 million people. I don't yet know if I was one of th...
If you're immersed in the world of kanji, you're almost certainly aware of Jim Breen, who created the impressive and groundbreaking online dictionary...
My husband and I frequent an Indian restaurant in San Francisco, not just because the korma is heaven-sent, and not just because the naans are fluffy and scrumptious. We also enjoy the quirkiness o...
Last week someone wrote to me and mentioned chai, by which she meant "living" in Hebrew. I grew up in a Jewish environmen...
Traveling through Norway in 2008, I absorbed just a few Norwegian terms from menus. When I encountered this ad on the side of a building in Oslo, I felt excited to be able to recognize the words fo...
A quiz of sorts: do you have any idea what the following word might mean?
孵化
Look carefully at the components of 孵! I'...
Someone wrote to me last week and mentioned the non-Joyo 鼠 (ねずみ: mouse). I'll enlarge it so that you have a prayer of seeing it:
The following word looks quite simple, but that's not the case!
一分
It has three yomi and three meanings. Do you kno...
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