窮屈 [きゅうくつ] – narrow; tight; stiff

• 窮 [キュウ・きわまる] – cornered; hard up
• 屈 [クツ・かがむ] – bend; submit; flinch

立春 [りっしゅん] – the first day of spring

• 立 [リツ・たつ] – to stand (up)
• 春 [シュン・はる] – springtime

According to the Japanese calendar, Spring is supposed to “stand up” on February 4th this year.  Tell that to the millions of people all over the US who are buried under feet of snow and ice!

鬼は外、福は内!

節分 [せつぶん] – A holiday celebrating the last day of winter in the traditional Japanese calendar

• 節 [セツ・ふし] – time; section; node
• 分 [フン・ブン] – minute; segment

Happy Setsubun!

暴走族 [ぼうそうぞく] – a group of delinquents in Japan known for driving very loud bikes and cars recklessly and generally making nuisances of themselves

• 暴 [ボウ・あばれる] – violence; outburst; outrage
• 走 [ソウ・はしる] – to run
• 族 [ゾク] – tribe

迎春 [げいしゅん] – New Year’s Greetings

• 迎 [ゲイ・むかえる] – to welcome, to greet
• 春 [シュン・はる] – spring (season)

昨年中は大変お世話になりました。今年も宜しくお願い致します！

大晦日 [おおみそか] – New Year’s Eve

• 大 [ダイ・おお-・おおきい] – big, large
• 晦 [カイ・つごもり・くらい・みそか] – disappear; dark
• 日 [ニチ・ジツ・ひ・-か] – day; sun

Happy Big Disappearing Sun… day!

月食 [げっしょく] – lunar eclipse

• 月 [ゲツ・ガツ・つき] – moon
• 食 [ショク・たべる] – to eat

Gotta love Japanese…

Right now, as I type this, the first full lunar eclipse on solstice in 456 years is visible in the United States.  To give you an idea of how long ago that was, Elizabeth I wasn’t even queen yet.  (In fact, she was imprisoned in the Tower of London.)

冬至点おめでとうございます！

淡々 [たんたん] – disinterest; indifference

• 淡 [タン・あわい] – thin; pale; fleeting
• 々 – symbol that indicates repetition of the previous character

To me, the kanji 淡 is a great example of how understanding pieces parts can help you to both understand and remember characters.  It comprises 3 distinct radicals, 2 of which are repeated: 水 (water) + 火 (fire) + 火 (fire) = 淡.

Does it make sense that adding water to fire would make the fire appear fleeting or faint?  Does this give you a picture of how the Chinese may have thought of this concept when formulating this character?

When water is used as the 部首 [ぶしゅ] (radical of a kanji), it is called 水部 [すいぶ].  When it is in the left portion of a kanji and rendered as 氵, it is called さんずい.  It looks like 3 droplets of water, doesn’t it?

When fire is used as a radical, it is called 火部 [かぶ].  Often, it occurs in its full form (火) in the left or right portions of a character (偏旁 [へんぼう]).  However, when it shows up in the bottom–literally the “foot” (脚 [あし]) of a character–it is rendered as 灬.

As mentioned above, 々 is a symbol, not a character.  It indicates that you should pronounce the previous kanji again.  々 acts as a shortcut, making it so that you don’t have to write out the character twice.

See if you can use this information to help you crack open unfamiliar kanji!

瓜実顔 [うりざねがお] – oval-shaped face

• 瓜 [カ・うり] – melon
• 実 [ジツ・み・さね] – reality; truth
• 顔 [ガン・かお] – face

瓜実顔 probably isn’t a terribly useful word, nor have I actually ever heard it in conversation, but I stumbled upon it today and thought it was interesting, so…