馬子にも衣装 [まごにもいしょう] – “clothes make the man”

馬子 [まご] – packhorse driver

• 馬 [バ・うま] – horse
• 子 [シ・ス・こ] – child

衣装 [いしょう] – clothing; costume

• 衣 [イ] – clothing
• 装 [ソウ・ショウ・よそおう] – attire; disguise

I’m guessing that the idea of this one is “you can even dress up a packhorse driver and make him look nice.”  Not sure what they had against packhorse drivers.

掲載 [けいさい] – publication; to run (an article in a newspaper)

• 掲 [ケイ・かかげる] – to put up (a notice); display
• 載 [サイ・のせる] – place; publish

 [とうじ] – winter solstice

• 冬 [トウ・ふゆ] – winter
• 至 [シ・いたる] – arrive, reach; climax

絶賛 [ぜっさん] – high praise; rave review

• 絶 [ゼツ・たえる] – beyond; interrupt; suppress
• 賛 [サン・たすける] – approval; praise

致命的 [ちめいてき] – lethal, fatal (-na adjective)

• 致 [チ・いたす] – do, cause, incur, exert
• 命 [メイ・いのち] – fate, life, destiny
• 的 [テキ・まと] – target, object, bull’s eye

致命的な欠陥 [けっかん] – a fatal flaw

金環日食 [きんかんにっしょく] – annular solar eclipse

• 金 [きん] – gold
• 環 [かん] – ring
• 金環 [きんかん] – gold ring
• 日 [にち] – sun
• 食 [しょく] – to eat
• 日食 [にっしょく] – solar eclipse

鯛の尾よりも鰯の頭 [たいのおよりもいわしのかしら] – It’s better to be the head of a sardine than the tail of a sea bream.

This saying is akin to something like “Better to be the head of a dog than the tail of a lion” in English.  While I don’t agree with the “don’t be too ambitious” slant of the saying at all, it’s still pretty cool.  Plus, there are the names of two fish in there, so hey… free vocab!

Note also that 頭, which is often pronounced あたま is, in this case, read かしら.

痛車 [いたしゃ] – a car painted with cartoon/anime characters (lit: “painful car” because it is painful to look at)