noun:

• Islamic State; IS; Islamic State of Iraq and Syria; ISIS; Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant; ISIL

noun:

• being frustrated because something is not quite as hoped (just as one cannot scratch an itch from outside a shoe); having an itch that one cannot scratch - four character idiom

noun:

• light that is said to be emitted from some hair or tuft in Buddha's forehead; ray of light from the tuft of white hair (between the eyebrows) - from 白毫相光 - abbreviation

expression:

• words can lead to disaster; the tongue is the root of calamities; the more you open your mouth the more likely you are to put your foot in it - proverb

noun:

• soup with rice bran pickled or salted vegetables (e.g. carrots, daikon or potatoes) and fish (e.g. salmon, gadid or Arabesque greenling) boiled in a salty broth (sake lees is sometimes added) (Hokkaido local specialty dish) ➜ 糠漬け【ぬかづけ】

expression:

• It's hard to tell a poor thinker from a sleeping one; They to whom only bad ideas come might as well be asleep; Poor thinking is futile; Inadequate ideas are worse than none at all - proverb ➜ 下手の考え休むに似たり

expression:

• It's hard to tell a poor thinker from a sleeping one; They to whom only bad ideas come might as well be asleep; Poor thinking is futile; Inadequate ideas are worse than none at all - proverb ➜ 下手な考え休むに似たり

expression:

• not to write to or visit someone; road of the weasel (it is believed that if someone blocks the path a weasel, he will never take that path again) [literal]

expression:

• not to write to or visit someone; road of the weasel (it is believed that if someone blocks the path a weasel, he will never take that path again) [literal] ➜ いたちの道

expression:

• the eyes are the windows to the soul; the eye is the lamp of the body; the eyes are the mirror of the heart [literal] - proverb

noun:

• East Asian age reckoning; traditional system of age reckoning whereby newborns are considered one year old and on New Year's Day one year is added to everyone's age

noun:

• East Asian age reckoning; traditional system of age reckoning whereby newborns are considered one year old and on New Year's Day one year is added to everyone's age - abbreviation ➜ 数え年【かぞえどし】

noun:

• man who takes his wife's family name and marries into her family; man who is adopted by his wife's family

noun:

• law of the country where a person habitually resides or is a national; law applicable to a person or to a person's legal problems

expression:

• if you can't beat them; join them; if your adversaries are stronger than you, it is better to join their side than to fight them - proverb

noun:

• first of nine traditional astrological signs (corresponding to Mercury and north) ➜ 九星
• white patch on one foot of a horse; horse with such a patch
• surface (landscape) that is white all over; pure white

noun / prefix / suffix:

• medium; average; middle

noun:

• moderation
• middle school - abbreviation ➜ 中一・中学校
• China - abbreviation ➜ 中国
• volume two (of three) - abbreviation ➜ 中巻

suffix noun:

• during (a certain time when one did or is doing something); under (construction, etc.); while ➜ 話し中
• in; out of (e.g. three out of ten people) ➜ 中【じゅう】

ichidan verb / transitive:

• to deceive somebody into believing (e.g. that black is white); to cajole; to talk into; to explain away (e.g. unpleasant evidence); to argue away; to wheedle

expression:

• the word of a wise man is worth the words of one thousand fools; one thousand chirps of sparrows, one cry of a crane [literal] - proverb

expression:

• he has not lived that lives not after death; the great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it; tigers leave their hide when they die; men leave their name [literal] - proverb

expression:

• trying to straighten the horns of a bull, and killing it in the process; trying to correct a small defect and ruining the whole thing; The cure is worse than the disease - four character idiom

noun / ~する noun:

• breaking ground; ground-breaking (ceremony)

noun:

• New Year's ceremony in which a hoe is used to break ground in a field lying in a lucky direction

expression:

• starting something in the eleventh hour; have not thy cloak to make when it begins to rain; don't lock the stable door after the horse has been stolen; braiding the rope only after the thief is caught - proverb ➜ 泥縄【どろなわ】・泥縄式【どろなわしき】

noun:

• card to pick up (in card games); card that is picked up by players instead of read (in karuta); card printed with the second half of a poem (in karuta) ➜ 読み札

noun:

• hardship now, pleasure later; seeking pleasure only after dealing with difficulties; seeking pleasure only after the happiness of the people is assured (a precept to be observed by a ruler) - four character idiom