noun:

• Yezo (northern part of Meiji-era Japan, esp. Hokkaido, but also Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands)
• Edo-period realm of the Ainu (as opposed to the Japanese) comprising most of Hokkaido ➜ 和人地

expression:

• take a long walk off a short pier; go stick your head in a pig; bash your head against the corner of a block of tofu and die [literal]

noun:

• low-lying part of a city (usu. containing shops, factories, etc.)
• Shitamachi (low-lying area of eastern Tokyo near Tokyo Bay, incl. Asakusa, Shitaya, Kanda, Fukugawa, Honjo, Nihonbashi, Kyobashi and surrounds) ➜ 山の手

expression:

• walk a mile in other's shoes to understand their suffering; you can't appreciate others' suffering until you've gone through it yourself; pinch yourself and know others' pain [literal] - proverb

expression / ~する verb (irregular):

• to try and do something; to attempt to do something ➜ 為る【する】・とする

noun:

• hard-liners; diehards; hawks

noun / adjectival noun:

• (young) man with traditionally masculine interests; tough boy; man's man

noun:

• hard news; reporter who covers political and economic affairs

noun / adjectival noun:

• strait-laced type (with respect to relationships)

noun:

• bullish traders

noun:

• young people who behave in a rowdy fashion (e.g. in a pub); young people who cheer and drink loudly

expression:

• everything comes in handy when used correctly; use the right tools for the right job; fools and (blunt) scissors have to be used in the right way - proverb

noun:

• territories in the vicinity of the capital and under direct imperial rule; (in Japanese history) the five kuni in the immediate vicinity of Kyoto

expression / godan ~る verb:

• to keep a fine house; to put up a front; to make the front of the house nice (and be pretentious about it)

noun:

• gods and men ［しんじん］
• godlike person; person as powerful as a god; person as refined as a god ［しんじん］
• low-ranking Shinto priest - archaism

noun:

• Twenty-Five Histories; authoritative collection of twenty-five Chinese historical books (the Twenty-Four Histories and the New History of Yuan) ➜ 二十四史

noun:

• Heike biwa; Heike lute; biwa with 4 strings and 5 frets, esp. for accompanying the Heike Monogatari ➜ 琵琶
• chanting of the Heike Monogatari to biwa accompaniment ➜ 平曲【へいきょく】

expression / godan ~う verb:

• to engage in a bloody feud; to have a family quarrel; to quarrel with one's own flesh and blood; to wash blood for blood [literal] - idiom

godan ~す verb / transitive:

• to (take out and) show; to demonstrate; to tell; to exemplify; to make apparent
• to point out (finger, clock hand, needle, etc.)
• to indicate; to show; to represent; to signify; to display

noun / ~する noun:

• running alone; running solo
• having a large lead (over the others); being far ahead (of everyone else)
• having one's own way; ignoring others' opinions and acting as one wishes; arbitrary action

expression:

• enter through the narrow gate (for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction); enter ye in at the strait gate - from Matthew 7:13 - proverb

noun:

• modern history; modern and current history; recent history; recent contemporary history

noun:

• hired foreigner; foreign advisor hired by the Japanese government for their specialized knowledge to assist in the modernization of Japan at the end of the Bakufu and during the Meiji Era

godan ~う verb / intransitive verb:

• to meet (by chance); to come across; to run across; to encounter; to happen upon - 出遭う usu. has a negative connotation
• to meet (e.g. of rivers, highways, etc.) ［出会う・出合う］ - esp. 出合う
• to emerge and engage (an enemy) ［出会う・出合う］ - often used imperatively as 出会え

noun:

• décolleté; décolletage; the part of a woman's chest and back exposed by a low neckline - From French
• robe décolletée; low-cut dress - abbreviation - From French ➜ ローブデコルテ

noun / ~の noun:

• low-cut (neckline style); décolleté - From French

noun:

• cool biz; cool business; business casual (Japanese Ministry of the Environment (MOE) campaign encouraging people to wear lighter clothes and for companies to set their air conditioners to 28C, etc.) ➜ ウォームビズ

noun / ~する noun:

• sinking; foundering; going down; submersion
• getting dead drunk - colloquialism
• having too much fun (esp. in a red-light district, etc.) and missing work or neglecting one's duties - colloquialism
• staying in one place for a long time - backpacker slang - slang

noun:

• statute of limitations; lapse of rights after a period of time; prescription (including acquisitive and extinctive prescription)
• becoming invalid or void after a set time
• ageing; aging - Chemistry term ➜ 時効硬化

noun:

• small tatami room
• extension of the main room of a home (in traditional palatial-style architecture) ➜ 放ち出
• room smaller than four and a half tatami (in tea ceremony)