1804-2003 Flashcards
1805殿Mr.
Associative Compound. Hand holding a weapon 殳 and striking a buttĐIỆN, ĐIẾN
1806井well
I nearly died by falling in a #well#. Actually, on two separate occasions. I’m glad to see they’ve added these fence posts. Now the #well# will be much safer.
1807囲surround
The village #surround#ed the well with a wall so kids wouldn’t fall in.
1808耕till
If you just grow your christmas tree in a well, there will be no need to till the soil.
1809亜Asia
In Asian countries, people use II chopsticks to get things into their mouths. Just imagine someone shoving a piece of sushi into their mouths with chopsticks.
1810悪bad
Because Asian people started to eat Western food, their hearts became bad and they started having heart attacks.
1811円circle
The shape of a Yen coin.
1812角angle
A museum display of two walking sticks bound together under a glass canopy, showing the first device used to measure an angle.
1813触contact
For insects to get in contact with each other, they need to place their antennae at just the right angle.
1814解unravel
Unravel the mystery by determining at what ANGLE the SWORD went into the COW.
1815再again
The king has eaten too much and has to get a new belt #again#. See his fat rolls hanging over?
1816講lecture
I have a funnel attached to my laptop that takes my prof’s lecture and puts the words into a text file. The bigger the funnel, the more accurate the conversion, so picture a bunch of laptops with large, unwieldy funnels attached to the USB port.
1817購subscription
Subscription is like a money funnel, because the receiving end is small (just one company) and the other end is wide (the whole country).
1818構posture
Trees with good posture look like funnels. For example, http://static.flickr.com/53/118084202_8896e54a14_m.jpg
1819溝gutter
A gutter funnels water.
1820論argument
Right part: academic conference (a meeting, some of the attendees making notes in scrapbooks during presentation). #Argument# at academic conferences is naturally carried out using words.
1821倫ethics
Mr. T talks about ethics at the academic conference. “I pity the fool who gets caught plagarizing someone else’s stuff!”
1822輪wheel
During a talk at the academic conference, speaker shows an introductory slide depicting the structure of car, and then moves on to the more narrow topic of #wheels#.
1823偏partial
Mr. T is very partial to hentai comic books. I know because he dropped a pile of them when I accidentally bumped into him at the door to kinokuniya!
1824遍everywhere
Go down the road in Japan and you will find comics EVERYWHERE, newpaper stands, 7-11, Tsutaya, even the supermarket. Comics are everywhere here along the road.
1825編compilation
I took the compilation of covers of all my Spider-Man comics that I had saved in a scrapbook and glued them on my door.
1826冊tome
Pictograph. I think of that Harry Potter spell book that had to be bound shut coz it wanted to eat you.
1827典code
This kanji means a code of law, not a secret language or symbolic language (such as programming code) … Story: The code of law is a tool used to bend citizens to society’s will. You can use the image of a totalitarian state, but be careful not to confuse it with the pinnacle primitive {阪}
1828氏family name
Looks a bit like Ft => #F#amily #t#itle => Family name
1829紙paper
Spiderman doesn’t have a single paper with his family name on it (because he doesn’t want to reveal his identity)
1830婚marriage
Marriage is the day in this woman’s life where she gets a new family name.
1831低lower
Mr. T travels to Japan and knows he must bow #lower# when presenting his business card.
1832抵resist
Most japanese find it impossible to resist pushy businessmen in Japan when they push their damned business cards into your fingers.
1833底bottom
I put all those useless business cards at the bottom of a cave
1834民people
All the #people# of the world with all their family names shouting with their big mouths.
1835眠sleep
In an Orwellian sense, the eye watching the people never sleeps
1836捕catch
I was retreating from the battlefield. In the chaos, my friend threw his dogtags at me to give to his family. I managed to catch them with my fingers as the chopper was lifting off.
1837浦bay
The water of the #bay# washes all the dog tags up after the battle.
1838蒲bullrush
bulrush was the flower that you could see near almost all bays in japan before the japanese started putting concrete everywhere. Just check how many percent of Japan’s coastline that is concretised… you’ll be surprised.
1839舗shop
A shop in an impoverished country is just a cottage with a dog tag identifying it.
1840補supplement
I usually hear supplement in “dietry supplement”. So you’re given a cloak for extra fibre and dogtags for extra iron. Keeps you regular and stops you feeling tired and run-down.
1841邸residence
So fed up am I, I’ve finally built city walls around my residence to keep these Japanese from soliciting me with their business cards.
1842郭enclosure
The city finally received the enclosure that it desperately needed, city walls to protect it against attacks from the tall kids.
1843郡county
County cricket. “I say old boy, you’ve hit that ball clear over the city walls. That’s six and out!”
1844郊outskirts
the country folk and and the city folk mingle at the outskirts of town, just past the city walls.
1845部section
Within the city walls, this section of town was so noisy that we had to muzzle them up.
1846都metropolis
A vision of a futuristic METROPOLIS: standing at the window of your 400th floor apartment, hand in hand with your LOVE DOLL, gazing out at the gigantic CITY WALLS that you can never escape.
1847郵mail
The drooping citywalls was generating a lot of angry #mail# for the city officials.
1848邦home country
He reminisced about his home country: “Ah, back in my home country, the bushes grew so high that they covered the city walls!”
1849郷hometown
Your hometown is where you broke out of your cocoon (born), and where you left when your hair was silver (died), your whole life was spent inside the city walls.
1850響echo
People’s voices are like echoes of sounds from their hometowns….you can always tell where they’re from by how they talk.
1851郎son
The daughter is a good girl that grows up to be a woman. The son is a good boy that grows up to defend the city walls.
1852廊corridor
Your son plays in the corridor pretending he’s exploring a cave.
1853盾shield
This is a magic shield with ten eyes which have the power to drag the victim towards it.
1854循sequential
This is mostly used in the word 循環, “circulation” (of buses through their routes, of blood, etc). So I think of a column of little Roman soldiers with their shields marching sequentially through the veins of a person, as an anthropomorphization of the immune system.
1855派faction
Drag + rag gave me trouble until I came up with zombie for it.The zombie population became more diverse, separating into different factions. One of them being the water Zombies.
1856脈vein
The vein is the part of the body most lusted after by the flesh hungry zombies (drag & rag - see revenantkioku frame 1855).
1857衆masses
Masses of zombies, splattered with blood. (any zombie movie)
1858逓parcel post
(I prefer 2 towels over cornstalk and belt) - Have you ever wondered why your parcels always end up in such bad condition when you get them? Or why you never get them at all? That’s because you’ve never looked at how they’re actually delivered - each postman is given a load of parcel post and 2 towels to drag them down the road on.
1859段grade
This is a military-#grade# staple gun! It can be loaded with real missiles.
1860鍛forge
As a discriminating metalsmith, I use the highest grade metals when forging such precision devices as staple guns and missiles.
1861后empress
The empress is cruel. Normally she’ll violently pull her servants by the ear when they’ve failed to follow orders. But one time she dragged this one guy around the palace by the mouth. She must have been really angry—ever since that moment, he’s never been seen again.
1862幻phantasm
After the play, The Phantasm of the Opera hangs up his cape on a clothes hanger and returns to his cocoon to sleep.
1863司director
The porn #director# has one big mouth. “Don’t bother putting your clothes on a hanger, just get started.”
1864伺pay respects
Mr. T is the director. You better #pay respects# to him!
1865詞parts of speech
The big mouthed diretor is even picky about the #parts of speech# you use, shouting, “More verbs! Less adjectives!” and such all the time.
1866飼domesticate
When you DOMESTICATE a animal, you are the DIRECTOR of it’s life and what it EATS.
1867嗣heir
The director’s mouth dropped open as he flipped through the scrapbook of properties he was about to become #heir# to.
1868舟boat
I see this kanji as a pictograph of a two story boat seen from the front. The glass canopy is the body of the boat. The drop on top is the chimney. The horizontal line is the ceiling/floor between the the 1st/2nd floor. Finally, the two drops in the middle are the lights on the decks.
1869舶liner
The most famous LINER is the Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sunk. Just imagine that huge LINER strucking an even huger mass of #white# ice.
1870航navigate
To navigate a “boat” through a “whirlwind” takes a skilled #navigator#.
1871般carrier
Carrier?! This means “general” (as in the general public or generally). OK.. Carriers, i.e. boats with missiles, are not available to the general public.
1872盤tray
What do you call a “CARRIER” of DISHes? A TRAY.
1873搬conveyor
When workers neglect workplace safety, their fingers get cut off and carried away by the conveyor belt, which looks like a ‘finger carrier’ in that case.
1874船ship
A boy floats his toy boat in a gully and imagines it as an immense #ship#.
1875艦warship
The warship towers over the smaller benign boats, overseeing their safe path from port to port.
1876艇rowboat
Courts in olden times would often punish convicts by sentencing them to a life of being the rower crew for large rowboat ships (there were no engines or boilers back then)… Yo ho, Yo ho….
1877瓜melon
M for melon. 瓜elon
1878弧arc
When you use a bow to shoot a melon, the arc varies depending on how far away you are.
1879孤orphan
An orphan will never know the joys on sucking on his mother’s melons……..
1880繭cocoon
This is a simple two-column manga showing the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a cocoon. First, the caterpillar gets under a large flower (bees tend to hang around flowers, which scare away other predators). Then, in the first frame, we see the caterpillar (insect). Then, a bar separating this frame from the next frame (remember that Japanese manga run the other way!), in which we see the insect covered with thread, making a beautiful cocoon.
1881益benefit
The benefit of having sharp horns and fast legs is that an animal can get to the food dish first.
1882暇spare time
Some jackass-like people have way too much spare time. You can find video’s of them all over the internet, if you like such things, you can watch it all day. You see them stapling their mouths shut, or throwing eachother upside down in boxes or kicking each other in the crotch.
1883敷spread
Instead of being glued to one {専} 専, I decided to spread my attention in many directions 方, and be a taskmaster at none.
1884来come
You horny bastard, don’t come, at least not yet!
1885気spirit
Captain Hook, his #spirit# crushed, is lying on the ground cursing Wolverine who has defeated him with his far superior claws.
1886汽vapor
Water vapor almost looks like a spirit but has no soul.
1887飛fly
Hooks with small wings attached look like hummingbirds with a long beak. Two hummingbirds are trying to fly away with our little measuring box. What do they want it for?
1888沈sink
(thx geezer) The maimed waitress (no head and arms just her legs and trunk) is dropped into the water with a cement crown to make sure she sinks. She shouldn’t have been so nosy about her yakuza-boyfriend’s schemes.
1889妻wife
ten rakes woman. your wife digs her fingernails into you and it feels like 10 rakes when she finds you ontop of another woman
1890衰decline
If you thought that the dude in 哀 was pathetic, you haven’t seen him after his decline. Here he is carrying a stick around in his mouth like a dog, begging people to throw it for him. Note that the mouth is closed only after the stick goes in, as is only logical.
1891衷inmost
The guy from {哀} shared his inmost feelings with a girl and she rammed a walking stick down his throat. It ruptured his inmost organs.
1892面mask
When Jim Carrey puts on #The Mask#, he can make it seem like he has 100 eyes popping out of his head.
1893革leather
You can feed twenty mouths for a year for the price of ten leather coats.
1894靴shoes
Leather shoes are nice because they change shape to fit your foot.
1895覇hegemony
In the Old West, cowboys had #hegemony# OVER the Indians despite their leathercraft and ability to navigate by the moon.
1896声voice
When an enemy’s flag is raised, a true samurai can split it in half with just his voice.
1897呉give
As a present, I #gave# my dentist a hand-crank tool for spreading mouths. He was so happy since it makes his job easier.
1898娯recreation
A man from a less enlightened society comes for a visit, and asks the host to give him a woman for some recreation.
1899誤mistake
It is a rookie #mistake# to believe the words when your sweetie says “You don’t have to give me anything for my birthday.” Trust me, your sweetie wants something, something shiny, and if you disappoint, you will suffer.
1900蒸steam
This kanji is used in compounds for the steaming of food and also for smoking/fumigation. Here we have the Japanese once again trying to replicate the French cuisine, only with a twist, steaming food with flowers (think of flower-smoked ham for example). Flowers must first be completely soaked in water, and then poured over a thin piece of flooring under which there is an oven fire.
1901承acquiesce
To get someone to completely #acquiesce# it takes 3 dunks in the water before they give.
1902函bin
damn racoons ill show them. I put a snare in the bin as well as a few phosphorous sparklers so as to scare the shit out of the buggers as they rummage through my bin.
1903極poles
(modified Katsuo) Can simplify this using {朽}. You travel to the poles, a frozen wasteland. In desperate need of food you try to set up a snare but the tree is decayed (see story for {朽}) so you catch no prey. The brutal cold first attacks your mouth as your lips turn blue, then your crotch also gets cold as your body fails; finally you fall to the floor.
1904牙tusk
the kanji looks like an elephant with tusks. the box is the elephant’s eye. The final stroke is the tusk
1905芽bud
Zoo keepers are baffled as to why the tips of the elephant’s tusks keep #budding# into flowers.
1906邪wicked
The #wicked# queen builds her city walls out of menacing tusks.
1907雅gracious
“Goodness gracious! Such an #elegant# turkey with a tusk.” This mnemonic is meant to join RtK’s keyword with a better proposition. Heisig could have used “#elegant#” here, which is not confounded so easily with {淑}, and accurately represents the character’s meaning (it is also the chosen keyword in Kodansha’s Kanji Learner’s Dictionary).
1908釈interpretation
Animal track# primitive: As expected, #animal tracks# were left in place of the trail of rice I’d purposely dropped the night before. EDIT - also try #the footprint# for a primitive meaning, the classic symbol of detective films. STORY: This shakuhachi player is so talented, he can do interpretations of animal noises too. They’re so realistic he soon has animal tracks leading straight to wherever he’s playing.
1909番turn
the famers take it in turns to watch out for any animal tracks on their rice field.
1910審hearing
At your divorce hearing the judge tells you to roll dice to see who keeps the house. (“I can’t believe what I’m hearing!” you say)
1911翻flip
Don’t play dice with birds. When you’re not looking, they’ll flip the dice with their feathers.
1912藩clan
In the particular clan depicted by this character, each member has to take his or her turn watering the flowers.
1913毛fur
Be careful not to pet a cat the wrong way - most cats don’t like you rubbing your hand backwards over their fur.
1914耗decrease
The amount of “fur” (needles) on a Christmas tree decreases, until it doesn’t look all that good.
1915尾tail
A dog waves its furry tail like a flag.
1916宅home
This kanji is, of course, pronounced “taku”, and it seems the owner of this home is a little bit otaku himself. He has hung up locks of hair suruptitiously obtained from various females all over his house. A veritable hair fetishist, and certainly someone whose home you wouldn’t want to visit.
1917託consign
When you consign a matter to someone, you get their word and a lock of their hair (to be used in a voodoo ritual if they don’t keep their word).
1918為do
In this kanji, you can see 3 katakana characters: ソ, ユ, and then ユ again followed by TAIL FEATHERS. STORY: “So (ソ) you (ユ) wanna DO it?” “Only if you (ユ) do” says the female bird as she raises her TAIL FEATHERS.
1919偽falsehood
Mr. T doesn’t “DO” FALSEHOOD. It goes against everything he stands for. “I pity da foos who revel in FALSEHOODs!”
1920長long
The Geisha with long hair uses an ornate lacquered hairpin to bundle it all up.
1921張lengthen
The longbow is follows the design of a standard bow, only it has been lengthened.
1922帳notebook
In ancient China books were rolled-up scrolls of paper. So notebooks were nothing more than long towels.
1923脹dilate
taking Viagra let’s your blood vessels dilate…resulting in a body part getting long.
1924髪hair of the head
Japanese teenage girls consider the style of the hair of the head very important. If a particular style is trendy, soon they all want their own hair in the same shape as that of their friends.
1925展unfold
You use an American flag to wrap up a salad for a picnic and bind it with a hairpin. Now imagine unfolding it to open up the bounty you’ve fixed up for yourself.
1926喪miss
I #miss# my parents dearly. Here they lay, under a big cross, their mouths side by side. I stick hairpins in their graves. CAREFUL: the stroke order/primitive order is: ten, L mouth, R mouth, hairpin. “Soil” is not drawn in its stroke order.
1927巣nest
Owls only nest in fruit trees
1928単simple
Owls are smart…for this owl everything is simple coz his brain is ten times more powerful than mine.
1929戦war
George W. Bush’s plans for war were so SIMPLE. To him, its all just a big FIESTA.
1930禅Zen
Knowing ZEN’s emphasis on “nothingness,” it’s not hard to envision a ZEN ALTAR being quite clean and SIMPLE.
1931弾bullet
Hunting with a bow is too complicated. I’m switching to something simpler–using a bullet.
1932桜cherry tree
I was taking a picture of my girlfriend under the cherry tree during 花見, when an owl happened to poop on her at the exact moment the shutter snapped. It’s really my favorite picture , just don’t tell her that.
1933獣animal
The owl looks for its prey in the rice field. It sees so many potential #animal#s to eat but since it only has one mouth, it decides that the tasty looking chihuahua will be its meal for tonight. (adapted from Copycatken,1-9-2006)
1934脳brain
The brain is the part of the body that can give you the wisdom of the owl… or the wickedness of the villain.
1935悩trouble
The owl villain is the one that troubles me most of all the super-villains. He’s just so smart… you never know what he’ll do! Definitely enough to put you in a troubled state of mind.
1936厳stern
This represents a stern looking owl, perched up on a cliff. This cliff is quite famous for daring individuals to cliff dive off of, but is any of them daring enough to threaten the owl?
1937鎖chain
The chain on this chainsaw is made of little metal shells.
1938挙raise
This is a special owl-luring tool. All you need is to #raise# it in your hand. Owl will come flying and perch on it right away.
1939誉reputation
This owl’s reputation skyrocketed after he created a tool in order to speak human words.
1940猟game hunting
[game-hunting; shooting; game; bag]According to unicode.org and wwwjdic, 鼡 and 鼠 ({鼠}) are variants. So, for 鼡 (which I’ll call #rat#) I have: an owl, flying in the wind, can easily spot a #rat# even if it’s hiding in the cornstalks.Now 猟 is easy: wild dogs are having fun by #game-hunting# rats.
1941鳥bird
There is only one bird with such beautiful white tail feathers: the albino peakcock.
1942鳴chirp
A chirp is quite simply the sound that comes from the mouth of birds.
1943鶴crane
The original version of the “Ugly Duckling” was about a crane who grew up in a turkey coop. All the other birds made fun of it for not having a wattle or a snood or fanning its tail…
1944烏crow
The book’s story is just fine, but I found a kanji dictionary explanation also interesting: As crows are all black, it’s hard to see where their eyes are (black on black), so a stroke is removed from the part in the pictograph where the eyes would be.
1945蔦vine
Note : if you’ll remember we already have a primitive for “ivy”, but it was completely made up from the “square jewel” kanji. The kanji here refers to ivy, or vine, and is used in a particular compound for “Hedera rhombea”, which is a type of ivy native to Japan. This vine here produces a lot of flowers, and attracts many small birds, which is sure to cheer up even the most depressed Japanese gardener.
1946鳩pigeon
Pigeons are the birds that come in hordes after baseball games to eat all the trash left by fans.
1947鶏chicken
the vulture’s husband is a chicken…heck…who am I to judge their interspecies love? They’re both birds so its cool.
1948島island
This island is the home of the terrible mythical bird Roc. It sits mighty atop the mountain waiting for the next hapless ship to pass by.
1949暖warmth
Ducks migrate south for the winter… they follow the warmth of the sun.
1950媛beautiful woman
You want to know about a beautiful woman? There’s a woman that’s so beautiful, the birds migrate to her instead of the sun!
1951援abet
You abet the escape of migrating ducks by pointing them the way.
1952緩slacken
oh no Spiderman has some migrating ducks stuck in his web, he has to slacken it so they can get out.
1953属belong
These bugs BELONG TO an extremist group promoting insect independence. They are parading the FLAG of their group, the Nationalist GNATS, and wearing explosives BELTS for their planned terrorist war.
1954嘱entrust
The commando gnats entrusted their mouths to the translators and what came out was “All your base are belong to us!”
1955偶accidentally
Mr. T #accidentially# stepped on Jiminy Cricket (a brainy insect, with a belt sort of sash to hold his “conscience” badge).
1956遇interview
On the road to my #interview# I accidentally bump into Jiminy Cricket who gives me some good advice.
1957愚foolish
“Don’t be #foolish#!” says Jiminy Cricket as he lashes you with his belt. Follow logic, like me, not your heart.
1958隅corner
Jiminy Cricket has a favorite #corner# he likes to slip into at The Pinnacle for a long drink.
1959逆inverted
There’s a road that’s been inverted- it’s gone from horizontal to directly vertical! The only beast that could possibly climb it is a mountain goat of course.
1960塑model
A legend says that if you model a mountain goat (with tail and everything) from dirt and leave to the light of the moon on the {朔}, the dirt will became flesh. (blackstockc)
1961岡Mount
white mount , Fuji mount , olympus mount whatever ….The choice is yours but wherever you go they sell those snowglobe souvenir : under a GLASS HOOD you can see the mount with a MOUTAIN GOAT standing on top of it …. So kitsch you just can’t forget it .
1962鋼steel
Mount Fuji is completely made up of a metal known as steel.
1963綱hawser
Spiderman saves Japan from floating away by tying Mt. Fuji to mainland Asia using a hawser made of web.
1964剛sturdy
Mount everest is very sturdy, you can hit it all day with a saber and it wont even wobble.
1965缶tin can
The starving horse, stranded on the mountain, is forced to eat a tasty tin can.
1966陶pottery
At The Pinnacle, traditional pottery is done by binding up a bunch of tin cans into whatever pot shape desired.
1967揺swing
For the condor primitive: A #condor# is like a vulture, but twice as big and it lives near mountains (a suitable place for such a majestic bird). For swing: I’m sitting on a swing when a condor comes by and picks up the whole swing set with its big finger-like claws and now I’m swinging in mid-air. Weeeeeeeee!!!!!
1968謡Noh chanting
Noh chanting#?!? I meant “NO CHANTING!” Now all you, just shut up! Not another word! Don’t you know that chanting can provoke attacks from the local condor? So, no chanting, and especially no #Noh chanting#.
1969就concerning
in the capital they have been having hearings concerning bioethics and bioengineering they call as their first witness a chihuahua with one human leg
1970懇sociable
The skunk here is Pepe LePew of Looney Tunes fame. He’s a very sociable skunk, as far as skunks go, but instead of having a “heart of gold” he has a heart of silver (since he always finishes second in the game of love).
1971墾groundbreaking
It was the #groundbreaking# of the new farm, but there was an uninvited guest to the ceremony. It was a famous skunk, the one with the familiar silver stripe. The feet of the crowd rushing from the ceremony site churned up the soil very nicely. The ceremony was ruined but the #groundbreaking# was a great success.
1972免excuse
Obviously this is the rabbit from Alice, excusing himself and rushing away on his legs, as he has a binding day schedule. This is at the same time an image, with bound=ears, day=head and legs are just legs. The image is used in {兎}
1973逸elude
Bugs Bunny eludes Elmer Fudd by pretending to be roadkill.
1974晩nightfall
This is EASY!!! Japanese people see a RABBIT ON THE MOON (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit ) and so nightfall is when the sun leaves to make way for the rabbit
1975勉exertion
Notice how BUGS BUNNY’s legs (hint about stroke extension) are starting to get big MUSCLES? It must be because he’s always EXERTING himself on the run from Elmer Fudd (or from kicking the shit out of Elmer Fudd when he catches up!!).
1976象elephant
An elephant has huge ears, like a rabbit, and a big, fat body, like a sow.
1977像statue
The statue of liberty is being replaced by a statue of Mr. T riding an elephant.
1978馬horse
Turkey with the drops at the top removed and tail feathers added (this matches stroke order and there are the tail feathers already, why not have the whole bird). If you take the two drops of 隹 as wings, then horses are like turkeys, but have no wings and have more prominent tail “feathers”. Both are actually supposed to be pictographs, though.
1979駒pony
The cute little innocent-looking plastic #pony# on the desk of a student is in fact a trojan horse, hiding phrases in its belly which are used for cheating during an exam. No #pony# will be permitted on desks during tests!
1980験verification
the verification proves the horse is real by poking it with an ice pick
1981騎equestrian
Equestrian events are where you get horses to do strange things.
1982駐parking
Parking in the dark may be difficult…specially if you’re parking a trojan horse. To lend you a tiny bit of help, take this candlestick with you, and at least you’ll have some light.
1983駆drive
Wolverine drives his box by having a horse drag him around. He seems to really be losing it after coming to the homeless ward…
1984駅station
Anyone living in Japan knows that train stations play little melodies when the train is about to arrive. In Ye Olden Days, when horses and carriages were used for transport, the carriage driver would play a little melody on his shakuhachi to let the passengers know the carriage was arriving at the next station.
1985騒boisterous
The hidden Greeks inside the Trojan Horse are getting boisterous as one of them is bitten in the crotch by a nasty insect. If they don’t shut up, the Trojans will hear them…
1986駄burdensome
The Greek warriors inside the Trojan Horse are complaining about this burdensome plump warrior who is not helping at all (say, just eating candies and watching). - “You know you’re such a burden!”. Note : be sure to keep “plump” distinct from the primitive meaning of “round” (“fat man”).
1987驚wonder
You stand in AWE at the 8th WONDER of the world, a huge TROJAN HORSE
1988篤fervent
A fervent history otaku rebuild the the Trojan Horse. But since he was Japanese, he used bamboo instead of normal wood.
1989騰inflation
flesh+quarter=McDonald’s quarter pounder. Due to inflation, McDonald’s has had to start making quarter pounders out of horse meat.
1990虎tiger
Magic wand + first two strokes of pelt (皮) + diced + human legs. A wizard who turns people he doesn’t like into newts with his magic wand goes for variety - he has always wanted a tiger pelt - but things go awry when the tiger promptly dices and eats him, leaving only a pair of legs. (a fitting end for a wicked wizard)
1991虜captive
Captive men are thrown to the tigers. I think you can imagine something else is done to captive women…
1992膚skin
Ending up in a tiger’s stomach is not good for your skin, as it’s full of stomach acids.
1993虚void
In Japanese folklore there is no hell, but there is the void. There, a row of tigers waits in the blackness to devour those souls who have failed in their spiritual life.
1994戯frolic
This is a story about the end of the universe. The universe is turning into a featureless void. There’s nothing we can do about it except for throw a fiesta and frolic a little bit before it’s all over.
1995虞uneasiness
The dentist couldn’t help but feel #uneasiness# as he used his hand crank mouth tool on the tiger in his chair.
1996慮prudence
Real meaning: “to ponder”. You have to think with prudence (ponder carefully) about approaching a tiger, as is evident from 虎.
1997劇drama
A great Indian #drama# acted out every year is how a poor Bengali boy fended off the tigers from his pigs using only a sabre.
1998虐tyrannize
Here we see the evil tyrannizing tiger. What is on his chest? A giant E, for EVIL, of course.
1999鹿deer
Bambi wanders into a cave and sees a side order of salad and 2 spoons…but what’s the main course?
2000薦recommend
It is recommended that deers stick to eating flowers. If they try to eat birds, they may end up choking on them, like this one here. Note that the head (白) is gone and the visible part of the body which is normally written with a stroke of the head must by necessity be drawn with a stroke of the tail.
2001慶jubilation
In this kanji, “deer” replaces the “head” primitive from the “melancholy” kanji. Poor Ned is feeling melancholy so Uncle Jimbo (of South Park animated series) suggests a good deer huntin’ trip to fix that and turn that melancholy into jubilation.
2002麗lovely
The anthropologist made an exact deer painting from the cave ceiling on the ceiling of his house. Too bad they’re both mediocre. All his wife could say was, “How…#lovely#.”
2003熊bear
Most don’t know it, but #bear#s have the ability to walk on fire. They’re invincible creatures!
2004能ability
The amputee has no hands but only stumps of flesh beneath his elbows. To give him the ability to eat he has two spoons implanted in his arm stumps, one in each side.
2005態attitude
This guy has an attitude problem –lots of ability, but his heart’s not in it.
2006寅sign of the tiger
If you draw the sign of the tiger on the ceiling of your house, you will sprout tiger’s legs (animal legs) and be able to run and pounce like the big cats yourself.
2007演performance
That was some great #performance#! He caused the water to shoot up into the air and form the sign of the tiger in airborne droplets. You sure missed a great #performance#!
2008辰sign of the dragon
Bruce Lee# is such a badass he climbed a sheer vertical cliff using only 2 hairpins.
2009辱embarrass
During the shooting of one of his first movies in China, Bruce Lee fell through the cheaply built movie set, and into a barrel of glue. As you can imagine, to put Bruce Lee in that position must have caused great embarass to the chinese producer. Note the hints in the story for the position of the primitives.
2010震quake
Bruce Lee has magical abilities in his newest movie. He can conjure rain and earth#quakes#.
2011振shake
Bruce Lee shakes the confidence of his opponents by simply waving his fingers in front of them, they know that each of them is a deadly weapon in their own right. Hwwaaaa…
2012娠with child
Any woman spending a night with the virile Bruce Lee is bound to end up with child
2013唇lips
I love Bruce Lee dubbing. His #lips# move, but sometimes words don’t come out of his mouth.
2014農agriculture
The most unlikely persons in the world to take up agriculture must be Bender and Bruce Lee. An awkwared moment as they stare on the various farming utensils, hoe, plow. Both with straw hats on and blue overalls, and drawn in Groenigs irrevent style.
2015濃concentrated
The agriculture of Florida is concentrated on making concentrated orange juice. Just add water! Imagine a can of FCOJ, dumping it into a pitcher and adding water
2016送send off
After worshipping the golden calf, God sent the Jews on a long road through the wilderness.
2017関connection
The golden calf is sent to the gates of Hell for it’s connection to false idols.
2018咲blossom
Evil blossoms from the mouths of those who worship the golden calf. (Playing it safe and avoiding the image of a flower completely)
2019鬼ghost
A #ghost#, or #oni#, wandering slowly on its human legs, searching for brains to eat. What looks like an elbow here is actually a pictoral representation of the forked tail protruding out of its rear.
2020醜ugly
The ugly oni can’t get a date so he drinks sake by himself at the bar.
2021魂soul
When we die, our soul rises up in a ghostlike rising cloud of mist up to heaven (we hope) (Adapted from darg_sama,28-10-2005)
2022魔witch
the witch sold me some hemp that made me see ghosts don’t do drugs
2023魅fascination
Ghosts have not yet left the world, they must still have a deep fascination with their past life on Earth.
2024塊clod
This word somehow reminds me of a golem… an oni made from soil.
2025襲attack
Fuaburisu’s story is incredibly good, but I made it a bit simpler: The imperial dragon is a rare “three-headed slingshot-snake”, kept in a vase and fed with meat. It’s very aggressive, so at feeding time you need to wear the special garment or it will attack you.
2026嚇upbraid
To upbraid someone, you criticize them in a menacing way. In other words, you jaw at them with your MOUTH until both sides of their face turn RED (hence the double-red).
2027朕majestic plural
The king says “Only #We# are allowed to partake of the flesh of the golden calf.”
2028雰atmosphere
(This is #atmosphere# as in ambiance, mood). Rain is only part of the #atmosphere# for a romantic porch date. Food, music, and candles are the rest.
2029箇item
You’ve entered in a chinese shop where apparently the only item in sale is old, dusty, hardened bamboo (for construction for example). It looks like these items have been there forever. Asking the clerk if anything else is available, he doesn’t understand and instead asks - “Two items? Three items?” (the kanji is a counter for items) - thinking you want to buy something.
2030錬tempering
Tempering should be done with the metal facing east. (If not, the metal may pick up the earth’s magnetic field)
2031遵abide by
You must abide by the revered rules of the road! No devil’s brew and stay glued to your lane in the road!
2032罷quit
Hey, screw you! Don’t you look down on me! I have the ability to quit anytime I want!
2033屯barracks
The game characters from Worms sleep in their #barracks# at night.
2034且moreover
Moreover is a literary term to shelve what you had just been talking about, to come back to it later.
2035藻seaweed
Let wooden goods = furniture. Then: Walking along the sea shore you see some washed-up furniture with water (waves) splashing against it. From a distance it looks like flowers are growing out the top, but as you get closer you see it is in fact seaweed.
2036隷slave
The samurai sits on the altar and watches the #slave# rake rice all day.
2037癒healing
At the butcher’s meeting, all the butcher’s who have a heart disease attend the faith healing workshop.
2038丹cinnabar
Rusty# old boat with the bottom and top missing.
2039潟lagoon
Right part: mortar bound up over oven fire, comprising boiling cauldron. #Lagoon# is a shallow pond, thus easily warmed by sun, large-scale equivalent of a boiling cauldron.
2040丑sign of the cow
77 cows behind a fence.
2041卯sign of the hare
rabbit ears
2042巳sign of the snake
The 巳nd!!! =D
