noun:

• VICS; Vehicle Information and Communication Systems - IT term

expression:

• right on the heels of yesterday, then today ...; soon after something, and yet now ...

noun:

• collective responsibility; joint liability - four character idiom

noun:

• first proponent; initiator and advocate (e.g. of a theory)

noun:

• congagement; containment and engagement (in foreign affairs) - obscure term

expression / godan ~る verb:

• to undergo great hardships; to waste away from great effort and worry

noun:

• pink fish floss; fish that has been finely shredded, seasoned and colored pink ➜ 田麩【でんぶ】

noun:

• love birds; sickeningly sweet and soppy couple - from ばかなカップル - colloquialism

expression:

• the world is at peace; bows in bags and swords in sheaths [literal] - proverb

noun:

• rurban (area); rural and urban

noun:

• Osaka Incident; plot by Oi Kentaro and the Liberal Party to support a Korean uprising, 1885

noun:

• bardo; state (or period) of intermediate existence between one's death and rebirth (in Japan, 49 days) - Buddhism term ➜ 中陰・四有

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:

• Minister of State for Special Missions; Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy - abbreviation ➜ 内閣府特命担当大臣【ないかくふとくめいたんとうだいじん】

expression / godan ~く verb:

• to fold one's arms; to stand and watch (without interfering)

noun:

• pent-up resentment; grudges and hard feelings

godan ~む verb / expression:

• to win over; to win (someone's) heart and mind

noun:

• unflavored rice porridge; rice porridge made of only white rice and water - Food term ➜ 粥

expression / adjectival noun:

• to be as busy as a bee; like Christmas and a birthday feast rolled into one - idiom

noun:

• fish floss; finely shredded and seasoned fish

noun / ~する noun:

• prostration; placing knees, hands and forehead on the ground to show utmost respect - Buddhism term ➜ 五体投地【ごたいとうち】

noun / ~する noun:

• broken into small fragments; smashed to atoms; fragments and splinters; smithereens

noun:

• Okinawa Reversion Agreement (1971); Agreement between Japan and the United States of America Concerning the Ryukyu Islands and the Daito Islands

expression:

• one should not rush to make a profit; business is best run when sales flow like a cow's drool: long and thin - obscure term

noun:

• true Tokyoite; person born and raised in Edo - Kansai dialect ➜ 江戸っ子