expression / adjective:

• quick on the uptake; perceptive; intuitive ➜ 勘のいい【かんのいい】

noun:

• decoration hung on the New Year's pine on New Year's eve

noun:

• three great nobles of the Restoration (Okubo Toshimichi, Saigo Takamori and Kido Takayoshi); three statesmen who played an important role during the Meiji Restoration

noun:

• the Seven Deadly Sins

noun / ~する noun:

• all things being in flux through the endless circle of birth, death, and rebirth; the circle of transmigration - four character idiom

expression / adverb:

• in the end; after all is said and done; at the striped mullet's ultimate maturity (when the striped mullet is fully grown) [literal] ➜ 鯔【とど】

noun:

• Way of the Five Pecks of Rice (ancient Chinese Daoist movement later known as The Way of the Celestial Masters) ➜ 天師道

noun:

• on the roof; court nobles

noun:

• The Eastern Church

noun:

• Queen Mother of the West (an ancient Chinese goddess)

noun:

• run-of-the-mine coal

noun / ~する noun:

• participating in something by merely following the leaders - four character idiom

expression / godan ~ぐ verb:

• to pick up the thread of a story; to resume a conversation

noun / ~の noun:

• initiative taken by bureaucrats in the drafting of government policies and bills (rather than by politicians) - four character idiom

noun:

• rice grown on dry land; dry land rice plant

adverb:

• swishing through the air; whirling quickly; moving quickly - onomatopoeia ➜ ビュッ

expression / godan ~く verb:

• to think of as the main point; to make the main purpose; to put the focus on ➜ 主眼

noun:

• event where young men and women paint each others' cheeks with black ink or soot during Little New Year in the San'in region ➜ 小正月

expression:

• while looking on in blank amazement; while gazing at it in shock ➜ あれよあれよ

noun:

• the advertising industry

expression:

• inscrutable are the ways people are brought together; there is no telling how people are brought together ➜ 縁は異なもの味なもの

noun:

• the car ahead; front wheel

expression:

• the law of arising and ceasing; the law of creation and destruction - Buddhism term

noun:

• traditional Koshogatsu ceremony where the newly-wed wife is hit on the rump with a sacred wooden pole to ensure her fertility ➜ 小正月・祝い棒

noun:

• female medium who summons spirits by sounding the string of a catalpa bow ➜ 巫女【みこ】・口寄せ