Quick LinksWelcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Recently I've shown you koala and kangaroo pictures, and in the past I've posted pictures of dogs, giraffes, and yaks. By this point, you should be an expert in animal identification. Based on the breakdowns below, see if you can figure out which animal each compound represents: 袋熊 (fukuro-guma)     pouch + bear 袋狼 (fukuro-ōkami)     pouch + wolf 袋鼠 (fukuro-nezumi)     pouch + mouse Words for Discussing Pouched Animals ... To block the answers, I'll present the vitals on the kanji of the moment: 袋 (TAI, DAI, fukuro: (1) bag; sack, pouch; (2) skin of an orange (and other like fruits); (3)... Show more

Quick LinksWelcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary What do you think the following word means? 虚誕 (kyotan) The first kanji, 虚 (KYO, KO, muna(shii)), means "empty" or "false," as we saw long ago. You may recognize 誕 from 誕生日 (tanjōbi: birthday, to be born + to be born + day), where 誕 means "to be born, birth." So 虚誕 is a false birth?! No, 誕 has other meanings, and the pertinent one in 虚誕 relates to the original definition of 誕. In 誕, the radical is 言 (words). That's not entirely obvious, because every component in 誕 can serve as a radical! All Can Be Radicals ... Meanwhile, 延 is "to stretch, extend," also acting phonetically in 誕 to express "big." With "big, stretched words," you have bragging or exaggerations. Thus, 誕... Show more

Quick LinksWelcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary When you long for something or someone, do you think of that longing as having a particular location? Do you store it somewhere, such as your heart, mind, soul, or journal? I don't feel as if my yearnings have specific addresses; they seem all-pervasive. But the following word hints at the idea that desire is actually lodged (宿) somewhere! 宿望 (shukubō: long-cherished desire)     to lodge + desire This may have something to do with the nuances of 宿 (SHUKU, yado: to lodge), which also appears in two words synonymous with 宿望: 宿志 (shukushi: longstanding desire)     to lodge + purpose We've seen 志 in both 意志 (ishi: will,... Show more

Quick LinksWelcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary 明けましておめでとうございます!（Akemashite omedetō gozaimasu! Happy New Year!). We've seen that this 明け means "to open, begin." What I hadn't seen until last week was this version of the greeting: 謹賀新年 (Kingashinnen: Happy New Year)     respectfully + to congratulate + new + year On 謹賀 ... A Japanese friend posted this on my Facebook page. Although I guessed the meaning, I was puzzled both by the yomi and by the fact that I'd never heard this expression. That's because it's formal and is used only in writing. Whereas the 明けまして phrase sounds completely Japanese, 謹賀新年 consists of four on-yomi, so it seems more Chinese. However, I will forever associate it with... Show more

Quick LinksWelcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Around the holidays, people like to hear old stories again, whether they involve Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or the Ghost of Christmas Past. This time of year also fills people with hope, so much so that adults temporarily suspend fears of pedophilia and let their children sit on strange men's laps to spout off consumerist fantasies. You'll find both storytelling and hope with 望. You already know that it often means "hope," because we learned the following last week: 望 (BŌ, MŌ, nozo(mu): hope, wish, aspire to, desire, look afar, look forward to) As for the storytelling, a few sample sentences with 望 form a tale of hope and longing. We start the story with this... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I'd never thought about it before, but I've just realized that the English expression "looking forward" has two meanings: "gazing into the distance" and "happily anticipating." One kanji captures both meanings. We usually interpret 望 (BŌ, MŌ, nozo(mu)) as meaning "hope." A while back, though, we saw that 望 can also mean "looking afar" or "gazing into the distance." This duality helps us find several layers of meaning in the song title 望みの星 (Nozomi no Hoshi: The Wishing Star). If you're wishing on a star (or on the moon, as per the etymology), you're both gazing at a distant object and hoping that something will come true. Novelist Wendy Tokunaga cowrote this enka... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Time for the final page of Alberto's beautiful haiku calendar! Explanation of the Haiku ... Now that we're at the last haiku of the year, I'd like to thank Alberto for the work he contributes to Kanji Curiosity. He puts an enormous amount of effort into explaining each haiku (in a language other than his native Spanish), and he accompanies his texts with gorgeous photos that add immeasurably to the haiku experience. I'm so glad he was one of the contest winners in the spring, or else none of this would have come to pass. ありがとうございます、アルバートさん！ Both the 季語 (kigo: seasonal keyword) of the poems and Alberto's wonderful photos put us in touch with the... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Let's start with a quick quiz. From past weeks you already know this kanji: 渡 (TO, wata(ru), wata(su): to cross, extend, cover, range, span; to ferry across; build across; hand over, hand in, transfer) And you might know 世 from 世界 (sekai: world, world + world). Put these two key kanji together, and here's what you get: 渡世 (tosei: livelihood, subsistence; business)     to go through (life) + existence Now, add 人 to produce this: 渡世人 (toseinin)     to go through (life) + existence + person What do you think it means? A person earning a living? A business owner? Check the link for the answer. I think you'll... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I've discovered two new ways of offending the Japanese: 渡し箸 (watashibashi: resting one's chopsticks across the top of one's bowl)     to cross over + chopsticks 渡り箸 (wataribashi: using one's chopsticks to jump from side dish to side dish without pausing to eat rice in between)     to cross over + chopsticks Both actions are considered breaches of etiquette. Just one hiragana distinguishes one term from the other. (And that hiragana can serve as a memory trick. The し somewhat resembles the top of a bowl, whereas the り looks like upright chopsticks jumping from side dish to side dish and appalling all the Emirii... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In any society, a bridge is perhaps the most visible symbol of trust. And this kind of trust seldom comes into question. When most of us see a bridge, we assume it can handle the cars, trains, and gale-force winds bearing down on it. Lately, though, people in my neck of the woods realize that they can't take bridge safety for granted at all. In September, inspectors found a significant crack on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. (They wouldn't have done an inspection except for a rare circumstance, so this discovery shook our confidence considerably.) Crews labored to fix the problem, only to have the repair job fail weeks later, sending 5,000 pounds of steel crashing down... Show more