expression:

• if you look carefully, it's more ordinary than it appears; the ghost, when examined closely, was withered silver grass [literal]

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

expression:

• the beauties of nature as the key poetic theme; the central theme in composing poetry (haiku) must be the beauties of nature and the harmony that exist between nature and man. (The slogan of the Hototogisu School of modern Japanese haiku) - four character idiom ➜ 花鳥風月

noun:

• banishment (to a location far from the capital); the harshest of the three banishment punishments under the ritsuryo system

expression:

• the husband is always the last to know; everyone knows of the wife's infidelity but the cuckolded husband - idiom

noun:

• stairs at the front of a noh stage, which go over the white gravel separating the audience from the stage ➜ 白洲

expression:

• the end of the world; the world is beyond saving; there's no hope for the future; this degenerate age

noun:

• immersion; dipping; in microscopy, immersing both the objective lens and the specimen in a liquid to increase the numerical aperture; in photolithography, filling the air gap between the final lens and the wafer surface with a liquid to increase the resolution

noun:

• collecting herbs and pulling out young pine trees by the roots (annual event held on the first Day of the Rat in the New Year) ➜ 子の日の遊び

expression:

• if even the most crooked person is surrounded by good people, he will straighten up as does mugwort growing in a hemp field

noun:

• north
• the North; northern territories
• North Korea - abbreviation
• north wind - archaism

noun:

• locking the barn door after the horse has bolted; doing something too late; mending the pen after the sheep are lost [literal] - four character idiom

expression:

• if you are hungry, where you eat doesn't matter; manjū in the toilet [literal] - proverb ➜ まんじゅう
• hiding something good for oneself alone - idiom

expression:

• even the strong-willed fall into temptation - proverb
• there's nothing you can't do if you set your mind to it - proverb

noun:

• working the corners; hitting the corners of the plate; pitcher's technique of throwing a ball aiming at the edge of the strike zone - Baseball term - From English "corner work"
• cornering skill (skating, driving, etc.)

expression:

• in that case; (might not be what was expected or hoped for but) if that's the case

noun / ~する noun:

• wind blowing snow down a mountain
• removing snow from the roof of a house

noun:

• Chinese coinage produced during the reign of the Yongle Emperor (used in Japan from the Muromachi period to the early Edo period)

noun:

• the "three noes principle" of no drive (indolence), no interest (indifference), and no sense of responsibility (irresponsibility), the term describing the temperament of the Japanese youth of the 1970s - four character idiom

noun:

• speech used by the speaker to convey the social stature between the speaker and listener; language conveying that the speaker is of greater social status than the listener - honorific language

noun:

• probe into the truth (of the matter); dig into the real facts of the case; get at the root of a matter - four character idiom

noun:

• dimness; dimly lit place

expression:

• if it does not exist; if it is not there; if it is not ... ➜ 無い【ない】

suffix:

• unless one ...; if one does not ... ➜ ない

noun:

• divine wind (esp. a typhoon thought to have protected Japan from a Mongolian invasion in the 13th century)
• kamikaze ［かみかぜ］

expression:

• missing important things here and there; full of gaps; as if the teeth of a comb were missing [literal]