2020/04/05 K

Question 1

万

Answer 1

万 Ten Thousand

You cut the leaf with your sword into ten thousand pieces!

Now that you have ten thousand pieces of tiny leaf paper, you decide to turn them into a manga (まん)! Each little leaf piece will become a panel. (ばん)

Question 2

公

Answer 2

公 Public

You have fins in private. But, you want the world to see them, so you take them public.

You head out into the public where everyone can see your fins, but… things have changed. All people are the same. There are thousands of (こう)いちs walking around, and they all stare at you (though they pretend like they aren’t).

Question 3

内

Answer 3

内 Inside

There’s a person inside your head.

You know this kanji means inside, so you can keep thinking about the person that’s inside you, running around. You finally discover him, and try to take him out, but before you can, he pulls out a knife (ない) and threatens to cut you if you do anything irrational.

Question 4

分

Answer 4

分 Part

The fins that fell onto my sword were sliced into two parts.

Now that you’ve cut the fish, it’s time to cut something else into parts. Next on your list is the buns (ぶん) which need to be split up amongst the people. If you’d like to learn the second reading, just think about how fun (ふん) it will be to do this task.

Question 5

切

Answer 5

切 Cut

If you have seven swords, there’s only so much you can do with them. The main thing? Probably using them to cut something.

Because having seven swords for yourself is too much, you decide to take the swords and divide them up amongst pairs of people. You cut them into pairs, and give sets (せつ) to everyone who needs them in the village.

Question 6

友

Answer 6

友 Friend

A narwhal sitting on a stool is your friend.

“Hi friend,” says the narwhal. “I must warn you about all the youths.” (ゆう)

Question 7

太

Answer 7

太 Fat

You have a big guy here, with an extra drop of something below his thigh, hanging down. That’s fat right there. He’s so fat he has things of fat hanging off his fat.

This poor fat guy has trouble with a lot of things. One of the things he has the most trouble with is tying a tie (たい). (た)

Question 8

少

Answer 8

少 Few

You have a small slide. The thing about small slides is that they can only fit a few people at a time.

Why is there a little traffic jam on the slide? Because the Shougun (しょう) is using the slide and he loves little things. He’s forcing everyone to stop and watch, even though there are people backed up behind him. How inconsiderate.

Question 9

引

Answer 9

引 Pull

If you have a bow and a stick you need to pull the two back together to shoot it. If you can’t pull it, you won’t be shooting anything.

When you pull the bow back, your body strains and you feel an immense heat (ひ) rise inside of you. You keep pulling and the heat grows hotter and hotter.

Question 10

牛

Answer 10

牛 Cow

The radical and the kanji for cow are exactly the same! That makes it easy to remember, so long as you know your radicals well enough.

Have you ever heard of わぎゅう beef? That ぎゅう is this ぎゅう.

Question 11

止

Answer 11

止 Stop

The stop radical is the same as the stop kanji.

You have to stop because there is a sheep (し) in front of you. You try to walk around the sheep, but it moves to stop in front of you again. Every time the sheep stops you stop too.

Question 12

台

Answer 12

台 Machine

You have a private mouth that’s a machine. But you have to keep your machine mouth private because it would scare all the non-machine people around you.

To make sure they can’t tell what’s machine and what’s human, you dye (だい) the mouth to make it look like skin. You find dye the same shade as your normal mouth and just slap it on there. (たい)

Question 13

外

Answer 13

外 Outside

You’re known to get the ailment evening toe, which is when your toe catches on fire after getting really, really hot (imagine this happening, ouch!). The only way to fix it is to cool your toe down, and the best way to do that is to go outside.

You go outside (you’re not supposed to be out there at night!) and you’re accosted by a couple of guys. Then, all of a sudden, Guy (がい) Fawkes jumps from the roof above you and takes them out, then starts running. “Guy Fawkes!” you yell after him!

Question 14

母

Answer 14

母 Mother

The sun lets out one drop, and then another drop. The drops dance together in the air, combine, and when they hit the ground, up sprouts your mother!

Suddenly your mother points at you and laughs, “Haha (はは)!” She keeps laughing, haha haha haha, over and over. You start to feel uncomfortable.(かあ)