noun:

• mekuri karuta (card game popular in the late Edo period)
• hanafuda; Japanese playing cards (12 suits of 4 cards, each suit representing a month indicated by a flower) ➜ 花札

noun:

• lightning strike; thunderbolt; bolt of lightning

~する noun:

• to strike (lightning); to be struck by lightning

expression / godan ~す verb:

• to do oneself; to do by oneself
• to start work (on); to commence ➜ 手をつける

noun:

• dance where a female dancer dresses up as a man (late Heian to early Kamakura period)
• noh dance performed by a man without a mask

expression / godan ~く verb:

• to startle someone; to make someone jump out of their skin; to take someone by surprise; to pull someone's butt hair [literal] - idiom ➜ 尻毛

noun:

• the Big Dipper (asterism); the Plough; the Plow - Astronomy term ➜ 北斗七星
• family crest representing the seven luminaries (with one central circle surrounded by six other circles) ➜ 七曜
• Japanese pilchard (Sardinops melanostictus); Japanese sardine ➜ 真鰯

noun:

• region south of Tokyo on Pacific Ocean side of Japan; eastern sea
• East Sea (controversial name for the Sea of Japan proposed by Korea)

expression / godan ~う verb:

• to set somebody to work in an arrogant fashion; to push somebody around; to indicate by pointing one's chin [literal] ➜ 頤で人を使う【あごでひとをつかう】
• to chatter; to jaw; to jabber - slang

noun:

• type Japanese folkloric monster (yokai), thought to be a trio of weasels who appear in a whirlwind to cut their victim
• cut caused by whirlwind

noun:

• formal, usually black, kimono with designs along the bottom of the skirt worn by married women on ceremonial occasions; married woman's ceremonial kimono

expression:

• to be unable to accomplish something because one has chosen the wrong method; to ask for the impossible; to look for fish by climbing a tree [literal] - from Mencius - proverb

expression / ichidan verb:

• to be astonished to hear; to be incredulous about; to express disbelief
• who do you think you're kidding by saying (that); what a laugh! - as 〜が聞いてあきれる, used to indicate incredulous dismissal of some claim

noun:

• special licence plate beginning with 8 used by police, ambulance, etc. vehicles
• special use vehicle (e.g. police car, ambulance, sprinkler truck, etc.) - colloquialism

noun:

• yamanba; manba; girl or young woman adhering to a fashion trend often characterized by extremely gaudy and colourful facial make up, heavily tanned skin and hair dyed in a bright hue - colloquialism ➜ 山姥・ガングロ

noun:

• scarlet kadsura (Kadsura japonica) ➜ 実葛【さねかずら】
• white sash tied around the head, with ends hanging down and tucked into belt, worn in kyogen to indicate a female character being played by a man

adverb:

• hourly; from one minute to the next; from hour to hour; moment by moment; with each passing moment - four character idiom

expression / godan ~る verb:

• to be wide-eyed (in surprise); to open one's eyes wide (in wonder); to be amazed (at, by)

noun:

• digital perm; hot perm; perm using hot rods regulated by a machine with a digital display

expression / godan ~す verb:

• to be possessed by an evil spirit; to be tempted; to give in to an urge; to succumb to temptation

noun / adverb:

• hourly; from hour to hour; moment by moment; momently; from one minute to the next; with each passing moment - four character idiom

expression / adjective:

• to neither itch nor feel pain; to not be affected by something; to not feel the effects of something

noun / ~する noun:

• planting a field with the same crop each year; repeated cultivation
• collaborative literary work; story made up by several writers working on it in turn
• series (of novels); cycle (of poems, songs); sequence

noun:

• Northern Di people; northern barbarians; Zhou dynasty term used by the Chinese to refer to non- ethnic Chinese to the north - archaism - derogatory term

noun:

• designated organized crime group; designated criminal organisation; designated boryokudan; designated yakuza group; group officially listed as criminal by the National Police Agency ➜ 暴力団

noun:

• system of guilt by association (especially that of Japanese election law, which stipulates that an elected official may lose his position if someone in his campaign commits a crime)