noun / ~する noun:

• closing, either for the day or permanently (e.g. theme park, botanical garden, etc.) - used for ~園 Antonym: 開園

noun:

• (a house) looking deserted with few visitors; sparrow net in front of the gate [literal] - four character idiom

~たる adjective / ~と adverb:

• spine-chilling (hair-raising) (like the wailing and weeping of a restless ghost) - archaism - four character idiom

noun / ~たる adjective / ~と adverb:

• giving off a foul odor; the air being heavy with an offensive smell - four character idiom

noun:

• dealing in rice speculating on the year's harvest before seedlings are set out - four character idiom

noun:

• a good chance coming along; the time has come (for, to, when...); opportunity knocking - four character idiom

noun:

• the large number of bridges over canals and rivers in Naniwa (present-day Osaka) - four character idiom

noun:

• Ginkgoaceae; family of flowering plants whose only extant member is the ginkgo ➜ 銀杏【いちょう】

expression:

• no skin off my nose; somebody else's problem; fire on the opposite shore [literal]

noun:

• wooden plane with a convex base curved in the cutting direction

expression:

• cannot live even a minute without someone or something; meaning the world to one

expression:

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

noun:

• moyamoya disease (rare, progressive cerebrovascular disorder caused by blocked arteries in the basal ganglia)

noun:

• requesting the testimony of an unsworn witness (who is not bound by perjury law)

expression:

• phrase used to express the uncertainty or lack of intent in what precedes it

noun:

• days of the month ending in 5 or 0 (when payments are often due)

expression / godan ~く verb:

• to be extremely thorough, focusing on even the finest of details

expression / noun:

• casting off the drudgery of everyday life and doing as one pleases; kicking back

noun:

• horizontally-wrapped fabric forming the bottom part of some traditional Japanese clothing

noun:

• Agent Orange (dioxin-laden defoliant used during the Vietnam War) ➜ 枯葉剤

noun:

• war started or ended with the push of a single 'launch' button - obscure term - From English "button war"

noun:

• creeper (plant that grows along the ground, etc. similar to a vine)

counter:

• counter for years (following a number in the hito-futa-mi counting system) - archaism

noun:

• Xi'an Incident (involving the arrest and confinement of Chiang Kai-shek, December 1936)

noun:

• loss of a match that is 'called' part way into the game