Nisha's Japanese Study Blog

Lesson 12

介J and I are "Jammed Into" an UMBRELLA.

界The world is just one big ol' RICE FIELD with billions of people JAMMED IN.

茶The flowers from 10 different bushes were put together to make this blend of tea.

脊The spinal column holds your flesh together, just like the metal rod of this umbrella holds the umbrella together. This kanji illustrates a horrible car accident... a pedestrian was walking along carrying an umbrella, when the wind blew so strongly that the umbrella pulled her into the grill of a car! The only body part left was a spinal column lying on the road...

合Only one mouth can fit under an umbrella. Remember when we kissed passionately under that tiny umbrella? I got soaked because only one of us could fit under it...!

塔Obviously a very romantic kanji. Picture a pagoda draped in flowers and underneath the flowers, a couple engaged in a kiss. The soil is there to give the flowers a place to grow. A pagoda is a place of harmony in Japan. This means that even the "soil" where "flowers" are planted must "fit" together (good for remembering the order of writing).

王A King is one（一） who rules over the land （土soil）. The king unites heaven and earth. (imagine heaven being the top line over the soil).

玉The jewel dropped off the king's scepter.

宝Put a "roof" (lid) on your jewels and voila! You've got a treasure chest.

珠The vermillion colored jewel on the kings right hand is actually a rare pearl.

現The KING ... can SEE clearly the PRESENT state of affairs in the land. The wise king can see beyond the present.     

玩And so it was, the ball marked the beginning of all the toys that were to come. A king is just like the rest of us in the beginning - he plays with toys just like any other kid.

狂Oh no ! A pack of dogs has bitten the king. He has turned into a rabid lunatic ! Think of King Nebuchadnezzar, who for 7 years lost his sanity and had to live like a wild animal. FF7 Reference: The wild dog king (Red XIII) had an awesome limit break - Lunatic High!

旺effulgent means to shine forth brilliantly; to be radiant. The sun is the effulgent king of stars. 

皇The emperor of Japan is the Sun king (it was believed that the imperial family was an offspring of the Sun goddess, Amaterasu). The drop at the top is his crown.

呈The king opened his mouth in a grand DISPLAY of power. After defeating the enemy king, we put his mouth on a stick and put it on display for all our enemies to see. This also looks like a big TV display on an entertainment system.

全You need a king sized umbrella to keep your whole body dry. Top of FormThe king has the whole kingdom under his umbrella.Bottom of Form King Arthur united the whole of England under his umbrella. (The umbrella works pretty good here, due to England's miserable weather).

栓To plug the hole, you need to use a whole piece of wood - like a cork or something. Best example of a plug is a cork. A piece of wood that covers the whole opening (else it would leak).

理The king of LOGIC is the computer.

主A lord is a little drop down from King in hierarchy. A lord only has a drop of the king's power.

注The lord always pours for the king. 'Water' 'Lord' - Jesus, our Lord, came to be living water for us by pouring out his blood. The lord, Jesus took jugs of water and when he poured it, it had become wine. Amazing!

柱The main pillar in a house should be made of the biggest and strongest tree - the lord of the trees. This wooden pillar is like the lord of the house... (remove it and the whole house will collapse). Samson took hold of the WOOD PILLARS and with the strength of the LORD, tore them down. The Tree Lords, or the Ents, are the PILLARs of the LOTR's forest community.

金King Midas shelters from the rain under his umbrella. Every now and again he reaches out with his hands to turn a couple of raindrops into gold, and puts them in his pockets. The king has lost his whole fortune, he is homeless and keeping dry under his umbrella with only two drops of gold left to his name.

銑Pig-iron is crude metal (金) before (先) it is refined. If you have trouble with this character, envision a big minotaur (cow head with human legs) as a blacksmith, smelting metals and making swords for war.

鉢The winners of the super bowl get gold rings, while the losers just get a mention in the record book. Next to the mixing bowl you have metal utensils and a cook book to help you prepare the meal.

銅 Copper is metal which looks almost the same as gold.

釣Angling using something made of metal, you try to bind something that is in the water with a little bait (the drop). In Ocarina of Time (N64), don't even try angling until you find the golden lure.

針Rumpelstiltskin used a golden needle to spin straw into gold.

銘A piece of metal with a name on it. Well, this is basically the definition of inscription.

鎮This kanji makes sense as long as you think of tranquilize in the spiritual sense - just reflect on that tranquil peaceful stillness of the heart associated with spiritual places in Japan. That's a very different image than the medical one which is more about sedation than tranquility. (Specifically, I picture Kinkakuji, the temple of the golden pavillion in Kyoto). Wonder woman used her GOLD lasso to TRANQUILISE her subjects and make them tell the TRUTH.

Lesson 10 (continued)

末Remember these as a set: The tree (木) has not yet (未) reached the extremity (末) of its vermilion (朱) foliage. The tree has reached the extremity of its growth and no longer produces small, new branches at the top. Instead the existing top branch just grows longer and longer. The tree's top branches have grown to extremities.  {be careful末looks just like未}

昧Something that is obscure has not yet been brought before the light ofday.

味My mouth has not yet swallowed the food because the flavor is so delicious that I keep chewing it. 味 = あじ = flavour 美味しい = おいしい = beautiful flavor = delicious. [ flavor = mouth + not yet ] - the pastry chef, after testing the flavor by putting a small sample in his mouth, declared that the confection was not yet ready.

妹My younger sister is NOT YET a fully grown WOMAN.

沫SPLASH = water being scattered to the extreme

朱It's autumn: only one vermilion leaf on the tree has not yet fallen. I'll try dropping by the Cerulean gym, as I'm not yet able to enter Vermilion City.

株Ideally, one buys stocks when a company is young, "green," and rapidly growing -- then sells them just before the last vermillion leaf falls off, and a period of dormancy or limited growth begins. Instead of thinking of the stock-market, imagine the wooden medieval stocks used to hold a prisoner's head and hands between two blocks of wood. The wood in this case is vermilion colored, as it often was. Imagine SHOOING away the guards and blowing the stocks open with a big "kaboom" sound. (ON reading SHU, Kun reading kabu).

若Young love puts a flower in her right hand (true love puts a ring on her left!!). Young single women in Hawaii wear a FLOWER over their RIGHT ear signifying they are available. Wakai.

草My Dad said "Cut the grass early, and watch out for the FLOWERS!!!

苦Flowers for the old man suffering in the hospital

苛In a perfect world, giving someone flowers can stop them bullying you. But most likely he will stuff the flowers in you because he can.

寛 Kanji Zen: See the flowers in the house. See the good in people. Be TOLERANT.

薄Oh no! The doctor forgot his needle at home, so he can only treat his patients with a diluted herbal remedy! { After the ---, complete 日 first, then | and then the ', lastly followed by 寸. Most Japanese do not know how to write these three Kanji correctly so here's your chance to really impress them.}

葉The flower generation were leaf smoking tree-huggers.

模You try to sell me imitation WOOD again, and I'll put you in the GRAVEYARD

漠Vague, vague, watery grave. (Repeat this phrase several times).

墓In the cemetery, graves are marked with a cross in the soil.

暮Before you complain about your livelihood, think about spending your days in a graveyard. I work GRAVEYARD shift and an all DAY shift for my LIVELIHOOD. Hey, its a living...

膜Flesh eating zombies rising from the graveyard to eat your membranes in the moonlight

苗If you plant seedlings in a FIELD eventually they will FLOWER. When i was a keep i was told not to swallow seedlings or flowers will sprout out of my brain!

Lesson 11

兆A bad omen/portent, makes the hairs on your legs stand up. A cracked turtle shell is a portent or omen that Mario has been, and will continue to be, jumping on Koopas as he goes to save Peach from Bowser. Think of this as Bowser, but also keep Peach in mind for the next one.

桃Princess Peach is up a tree, Bowser is try to climb it to get her. The pits of a peach tree look like turtles.

眺With fire in his eyes, Bowser is staring at you, ready to attack. Better run before he puts everything else on fire, too. Don't STARE at me with your EYE, you evil TURTLE!

犬A large dog, dripping drool.

状Who controls the status quo? Politicians, because they are as slow asturtles and as dumb as dogs. The status quo is controlled by the big dogs.

黙Want silence? Throw your noisy black chihuahua in the fire for good. The basement fire burned the computer AND the dog. Now there is onlySILENCE where the house once stood.

然Flesh of a dog roasting over a fire. They actually eat that sort of thing in some countries. Flesh of a dog over a cooking fire = "hotdog". There are all sorts of things in hot dogs. Believe me, you don't want to know what sort of things . Visualize the hotdog curling as it cooks, to remember the unusual way the flesh primitive curves in this kanji. 

荻A reed is a flower that looks like a hot dog. Reeds are a type of flower that can be used as a Snorkle, hiding in the swamp till danger has passed. This is especially useful when hiding from aPack of Wild dogs and forest fires.

狩In every prison escape movie, the hunt for the escapees involves a pack of WILD DOGS unleashed by the GUARDS.

猫The crafty cat hid from the pack of dogs among the seedlings in the flowery field

牛A cow bleeds vermilion when you cut off two of it's legs.

特Cows are on special at the temple!

告The revelation makes the cow's mouth drop down, "Hamburgers are made of what?!" In ancient times, the words from a primitive cow's mouth were considered a REVELATION because they were the "udder truth.".

先 Remember before sounds like "beef or". Before this cow sat on my legs I was doing fine! This is me in my "before" picture. I look like a cow with human legs.

Lesson 9 (Part 2)

完The house of Adam and eve was perfect in the beginning.

宣You can proclaim your opinions from the comfort of your HOUSE and have it SPAN the entire globe these days via The Internet. Parents proclaim: "In the span of time you're under our roof you'll abide by our rules.".

宵After practicing kanji in the wee hours of your home, kanji start resembling one another.

安Cheapest place for a woman to relax is in her own home.

宴An entire day of work for the banquet stands between the woman and the relaxation in her house.

寄The strange house has a sign saying "DRAW NEAR" in its window, instead of a 'Beware' sign. It must be a trick! Why in all horror movies, the actors are always drawn near the strange house, where they'll soon die?

富In ancient Japan, a RICE FIELD is a unit of wealth as it can produce enough to feed all the MOUTHs in ONE HOUSE. Remember Ducktales? That rich duck had that room in his house where he kept all the wealth! He had so much in that house you could even swim in it!

貯savings = money kept under the roof rather than spent on the street.

Lesson 10 (Part 1)

木Pictograph of a tree.

林A grove has at least two TREEs.

森Many Trees make a forest.

桂The Japanese Judas Tree, with Ivy hanging in nooses, it is where the betrayed will be hanged by Judas. A tree covered in poison ivy will quickly betray you, thus the name JAPANESE JUDAS-TREE.

柏An oak tree is what Gandalf the White made his staff from. Professor Oak, the Pokémon scientist with the white coat, was named after the oak tree.

枠Nine out of ten picture frames are made out of wood. The rest are made of metal or plastic.

梢If you cut off the treetops, they still resemble the trees they used to be part of. Treetops=tree resemblance. This also means  the end of a branch or twig. In English, the name for each year's new growth at the end of every branch is a "candle". Same in Japanese.

棚A shelf is a wooden companion to books.

杏I lay under the apricot tree and let the delicious apricots drop into my mouth. "apri-caught"

桐In Japan, a paulownia (きり）is known as the "princess tree". It was once a traditional TREE planted at the SAME time as the birth of a daughter. It would grow fast enough that, at the time of her wedding, it could be used to make a dresser as a wedding present for her.

植Plant the tree straight away.

椅To the Japanese, the first time they saw a chair, it looked like a strange use of wood! Probably why they still like to sit on the floor...

枯. When a tree gets old it withers. The Great Deku TREE withered and died once it was cursed with OLD, dark magic.

朴A beginner magician starts with a crude wooden magic wand. Later he'll upgrade.

村If you've ever played an old 8 bit or 16 bit RPG, you'll remember that every town was all bordered off by a line of trees with no space in between to get out through. Imagine that the trees were glued together so you could only exit town through the main or side gates, (so you couldn't escape the important scripted scenes.).

相The biblical proverb about maintaining good inter-personal relationships says to first take the plank of wood out of your own eye, before removing the splinter from your brother's eye. The Ent, minister of trees, watches over the interactions of different creatures in Middle Earth.

机The tree was knocked down by the wind. Now I can carve it into a desk! Ancient Japanese used to use tree stumps as desk where wind was a constant battle. A tree paperweight on the desk, will prevent the wind from blowing the papers away.

本The origin of a book is paper made out of TREEs. ONE tree can make many books.

札Someone put a tag on that tree with a hook. Oh, hey, it's actually paper money! Don't mind if I do....

暦This is just a picture of a wall calendar with a page for each month. The bottom half has the grid of days, the top half has a pretty picture of a forest this month. The cliff radical here is the top and left edges of the paper. You can see the paper curling up at the lower left where a breeze is trying to turn the page. I love those nature CALENDARs with all the photos of cliffs and trees and the setting sun.Bottom of FormBottom of Form

案As long as you have a plan, you can relax on trees as much as you like. Just RELAX! And stay in the TREE. Everything is going according to the PLAN!

燥A fire's heat will parch/dry out any goods made from wood. You need to leave milk out for Santa. If not, he will be so parched when he comes down the FIRE place that he will put the GOODS on top of the TREE!

 Lesson 8 (part 2)

涯Japan is a mountainous archipelago. When looking off into the horizon one can only see water, cliffs, and more land.

寺It is ironic that the kanji for Buddhist temple is composed by two elements Buddhism is meant to alleviate: earthliness and attachment.

 時In ancient Japan, TIME of ''day'' was announced at the ''Buddhist temples''. They did this by ringing large iron bells. This is similar to churches who ring their bells to announce the time of day.

 均soil equally spread with a ladle provides level ground. 匀 = equal, 勺 = ladle.

 火To be honest, it just looks like the flames of a fire to me. Looks like a camp fire actually.

炎An inflammation can often feel like FIRE upon FIRE burning. To fight fire with fire would just inflame a situation.

 煩Imagine the anxiety a librarian would feel if the library caught fire and all the pages of his books were burning up. ANXIETY is like a slow-burning fire inside your head.

淡Drink water and burn twice as many calories as you eat... you'll definitely get thin. Imagine inside your body, all those calories literally being burned from above and below... THAT's what it takes to become thin. To stay thin, you need to drink lots of water and burn off calories.

 灯A lamp is fire you can hang from a nail.

 畑In Japan, rice farmers are constantly making little fires on their rice farms burning up all the old stalks and things probably to be used as fertilizer

災What a disaster! First a FIRE, then on top of it came FLOODs.

 灰After the cremation fire, many prefer to scatter their loved-one's ASHES from seaside cliffs.

点The FORTUNE TELLER was burned by FLAMES on the spot because she was accused of being a witch.

 照A night scene: The hunters faces were shining, illuminated by the flickering camp fire. Alternate story: Though the sun is shining brightly, it will not illuminate the depths of a dark cavern; for that you need a fire.

 魚Fish dinner tonight: Step one bind up a fish on a rod. step two chop off the brains and scales. step three roast it on an open fire and step four enjoy.

漁You need WATER and FISH for fishing.

Lesson 9

里 This kanji means ri. Don’t bother looking it up in your English dictionary; it’s a Japanese word for measuring distances. One ri is about 4 kilometers or 2.5 miles. The kanji depicts how the measure came to be used. Atop we see the rice field, and below the element for land. The four sections you see in the rice field  are actually measurements of land, much the same as farm-sections in the United States have given us the notion of a “country mile.” The land division based on the size of a rice field is called a ri.

 黒If you burn the GROUND of a RICE FIELD with FIRE, eventually it will turn black. If your computer isn't on a firewall, you'll get a virus and your screen will go black.

 墨Black ink comes from black soil.

鯉Robocarp!!! Part fish, part computer! Visualize him flapping and clanking down the street, with bullets ricocheting off his scaly armor. What does a Fish get when it uses a computer? ... CARP-al tunnel! A carp is very clever, it's a fish first and a computer second. If you are Japanese, fish in the pond near your parents' house are most likely to be carp (koi, in fact).

量A quantity can be a measure of time or space (day/ri). At night break a larger quantity of people log onto their computers.

厘 RIN Another Japanese only word. The Square Root of 1 RI = 1 RIN just kidding. But it looks like it. Actually One rin is equal to about 1/1000 of a yen—or rather was worth that much when it still made economic sense to mint them. While inflation took its toll on this kanji as a monetary unit, it survived with the not at all surprising sense of something “very, very tiny.”

 埋In China, they BURY someone under the GROUND, one RI outside the village. When your computer becomes old, there's not much you can do but bury it under the soil and buy a new one. As the world moves on, we have to bury the old logic under the ground and keep up with the times.

同Monks speak in one voice (mouth) under a hood to say we are all the SAME.

 洞Animals always build their den in the same place - beside the water.

胴The trunk of your body looks the same as most people's, once you chop the limbs off.

 向Yonder....there is a DOT of light over the mouth of the cave.

尚We are created the SAME but it's our SPARK of uniqueness that gives us our self ESTEEM.

字The first kanji characters you will learn in Japan is probably learnt at home (in the house of your family) when you are still a child.

 守 A GUARD is usually "glued" to the house he watches. A guard gives those under a roof a measure of security.

Lesson 8 (part 1)

川Three streams grouped together might cause a flood! Please note: the Japanese do not use this as stream, they use it as river. It might be better to differentiate by thinking of river for this one and big river or major river for 河　川 is used for the names of Japanese rivers and places (ie. Xgawa Highschool). 河 is used for some foreign rivers and metaphorically (ie. 銀河 [ginga]: Silver River --- Milky Way / Galaxy).

州All powerful STATES grew from a few small settlements along RIVER. The original meaning of this character was "sandbar", and for me this conjures up images of the Mississippi River, which is very wide with many sandbars and which was used to define the borders in ten American states. Picture Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer floating by state after state as they adventure down the mighty Mississippi, occasionally beaching their raft on sandbars.

 順In Japan, obeying means following the stream of collective opinion BEFORE using your own head. "Obey!" demands Fox News' streaming page as they fill your head with lies.

 水water falls and splashes. the frequency of this primitive won't let you forget the meaning: water. No need for a story. Its everywhere: anime, water bottles etc.

 氷Icicles start with 1 frozen drop of water.

 永It would take an eternity to count all the drops of water. If time were water, this moment is just a drop in eternity.

 泉A spring is where pure white water comes from. Not the Spring season.

 腺On a hot day sweat SPRINGs forth from my glands.

 原Heisig calls this kanji meadow but used in compound words the most common meaning is ORIGIN... For those of you who can't decide whether to stick to meadow or go for origin, here's both. Imagine a meadow that is shaded by a cliff being the origin of a special type of white flower that can grow in a very small number of places.

 願Send your petition to the head manager of the white meadows apartment complex. Let's petition to save that beautiful MEADOW from overdevelopment by signing on this PAGE.

泳Remember the movie water world? Imagine if you were in that movie and had no boat! You'd literally be swimming for an eternity as you are surrounded by endless, eternal, water.

 沼The marsh looks just like dry land. Really it's water and it seduces people to step onto it and they sink to their death.

 沖When you are on the OPEN SEA, you are completely in the middle of the water.

汎This is pan- as in the prefix meaning "all". I think of Pangea as being a mediocre continent with water covering the rest of the planet. This was before it broke up into the first-class, well-distributed continents we got now. In Pantheism, even little drops of water are not considered mediocre.

 江Creeks, inlets, bays and so on are examples of water that have been crafted for some purpose or another.

 汰Remember Chihiro (Spirited Away): The water spirit was so plump from dirt he needed to cleanse.

汁A really good soup starts with stock -- just use water, and ten flavoring ingredients.

 沙Each water wave washes away a few grains of sand. To keep this separated from sand砂:Water erodes away stone a few grains of sand at a time until there is no stone left.

潮If it's not Eventide (汐) it must be morning tide!  The morning tide is basically, well, WATER in the MORNING.

源The source of our village's water is the magic meadow deep in the enchanted mountains. There, there is a white-water spring bubbling up at the base of a cliff.

 活Some water on the tongue makes a dehydrated person lively.

 消To extinguish fire, use water or something resembling it.

 況If your teenager keeps to drinking water (rather than anything stronger), it prevents a bad situation developing. (This character means "situation" or "condition".).

河Artificial river - water from a can. Natural running water comes in many sizes: brooks, streams, rivulets... But a RIVER is one such with enough WATER that we CAN do useful stuff with it: move wheels and turbines and transport loads. In short, a RIVER is running WATER that CAN.

泊Overnight water white (it rhymes). The water is white because  it froze overnight.

 湖Water-old-month: the lake's water is old in the sense that it has accumulated there over the course of many months.

測Fathoms beneath the water, a shellfish defends the depths with his sabre.

 土The grave was marked by a cross sticking out of the soil.

 吐When you get dirt in your mouth, you have to spit it out.

 圧The cliff exerts a lot of pressure on the ground beneath it.

埼This refers to LAND, not the STRANGE gear superheroes wear. A CAPE is a piece of LAND that stands out STRANGLY in the sea.

垣The hedge SPANS the castle GROUNDS.  The kanji also means a fence. Think of a dirt wall that spans your property. 石垣 = いしがき = stone wall.

 填In a hole in the ground, the body of the victim was placed. And then the killer stuffed it up so that the truth would not be found out, he hoped.

 圭Square jewels are made by piling soil on top of soil for millions of years until square jewels are formed. The pirate wanted to hide his square jewel well. So, he buried it in thesoil, under the ground and planted poison ivy over the spot.

封The jewel is measured and given a SEAL of approval.

RTK Lesson 6-7

*Keywords in bold*

子 A child, from one to ten, before becoming a teen.

孔 Gotta check your child for cavities, so the dentist will use his/her dental explorer (hook).

了 This child is not complete...

女 When a woman becomes a ninja she is called a kunoichi (くノ一).

好Women are fond of children.

如A woman sees her likeness in the mirror. (pictogram).

母When a woman becomes a mama her breasts grow and fill with drops of milk.

貫She pierced her ear with a mama of pearl (shellfish).

兄My elder brother is just a big mouth on legs. He has freedom to speak and freedom to go out.

呪Caution: this means a spell, not to swear. I put a curse on my elder brother so that he can never open his mouth.

克Ten teenagers were chosen to OVERCOME all odds and save the world. The start of almost every JRPG.

小LITTLE baby penguin flippers.

少Little!, few!, what's the difference? Few sounds like you are getting a dash more

大That guy was thiiiiis BIG! That is ONE large person!

多Two MOONs, or two EVENINGs? In either case, it's "two" many.

夕  I'm home for the evening. ただいま!

汐In the eventide (nightfall), drops of water start forming in the evening.

外It's dangerous to go (outside) alone (in the evening)! Here, take this (stick)! /Zelda.

名Because it's dark in the evening, you need to open your mouth and speak your name to identify yourself. (This is a traditional mnemonic for this kanji).

石Indiana Jones jumps up and grabs the lip of cliff just in time to evade the huge STONE rolling out of the mouth of the cave!

肖This kanji has a resemblance to a dripping birthday cake with 3 candles. Little Chibi Moon has a RESEMBLANCE of Sailor Moon.

硝Nitrate, or saltpeter, comes from rocks 石 and is an ingredient in fireworks, like roman candles 肖. (cf 砲, cannon.) 硝煙 shouen, gunpowder smoke.

砕When Hulk SMASH nine becomes ten/ A stone will smash a car-window nine times out of ten.

砂To make sand, start by grinding a few stones.

妬 The jealous woman bashed the brains in of the guy who betrayed her, with a stone.

削THIS means :to sharpen a pencil, or carve wood. Sparks will fly if you attempt to PLANE your sabre. This is not an airplane.

光Rays are just little legs of sunlight.

太Take large, and add a drop of fat, and you get PLUMP.

器Imagine four hungry mouths all sitting around the table. They are all banging their utensils on the table waiting for a big meal to be placed in the center. Note: 器 by itself means container/caliber/vessel. And 食器 means eating utensils ("food container").

臭If oneself allows a large amount of time between showers he ends upstinking.

嗅Your mouth stinks: you need to sniff your breath.

妙A geisha is an exquisite and delicate (another meaning of this kanji) women, however, even in the past there was only few of them.

省To remember the order: When focusing, keep a few things your TOP priority, so only they come UNDER your sight. You focus by concentrating your eye on fewer objects.

 厚 In Sparta we throw our Children over a Cliff. Under the Sun, they fight other Children. In the end, if they survive, they sure have thick skin.

奇A man in a trash can is very strange.

RTK Lesson 5

乙 FISHGUTS: This is a fish hook that pulls out fish guts. “FishgutZ by Zorro” [fishhook]

 乱 RIOT: Riots are caused by silver tongued leaders who hook the public

 直 STRAIGHT AWAY: Need to go to the hospital  right away if you get a needle in your eye

 具 TOOL: keep an eye on the table when using sharp tools

 真 TRUE: Kid tool to measure the truth: cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle in my eye, 10 eye witnesses help determine  the truth.

 工 [CRAFT]: I craft in World of Warcarft. I beams are used to craft skyscrapers, [craft, I beam, artificial]

 左 LEFT: looks like L for left

 右 RIGHT: The voice that tells you right  from wrong

 有POSSESS: Werewolves are possessed by the moon. My closest possession is my body.

 賄: BRIBE: when people use money (clams)  to get possessions - that a bribe

 貢 TRIBUTE: I volunteer as tribute” said no shellfish (money man) ever. Tributes aka taxes  are craft ways to get clams (money)

 項 PARAGRAPH: Paragraph=paracraft=page+craft. Crafting a page with paragraphs.

 刀 [SWORD]: sharp sword cut of “ka” from katana. Samurai have 2 swords on their belt. Slice pie with a sword.

 刃 BLADE: see the blood on my blade

 切 CUT: 7 samurai cut 7 opponents

 召[SEDUCE]: samurai seduced her with his shiny sword and sweet talking lips/ (also means to call to send for) Lion-o summons Thundercats with his word and shouting “Ho!”

 昭 SHINING: The shining sun seduced poor Icarus. One day a knight in shining and seduced  her with his lips and sword.

 則 RULE: Those with money and sword make the rules

 副VICE-: Shogun’s second in command handles wages. One mouth controls the rice field to pay for swords (samurai)

 別 SEPERATE: looks like a praying mantis…female mantis uses a saber to separate her husband’s body from his head

 丁 STREET: sTreeT has 2 Ts

 町 VILLAGE: village (town) has lots of streets and rice field

 可 CAN: I can speak street

 頂 PLACE ON THE HEAD: There is a bounty on my head. See the pages on the street with my face?

 Non-Kanji parts:

Fishhook:乙, when at the bottom 乚, 乱 Fishhook too the (right)

tool 具 *see the table with the tools on top*

RTK Lesson 3-4

旧 OLDEN TIMES: once you pass 18 (see the picture) you are old. Old people (the walking stick) talk about the good old days

 自ONESELF: point at self towards the nose between the eyes is the way Japanese people point at themselves. Eye drops are best applied by oneself.

 白WHITE: a drop of sunlight is white

 百 HUNDRED: looks like 100 turned sideways. 100-1=99. Japanese people celebrate white year when 99yrs old.

 中 IN: in between the box

 千THOUSAND: 10 bought a fancy hat for 1000 yen. A drop of magic makes 10 become 1000

 舌 TONGUE: in your mouth is 1000 taste buds

 升MEASURING BOX:  is it 1000 or 10? I need a measuring box

 昇RISE UP: Measure the sun to decided when we should rise up

 丸 ROUND: Round up 9 to 10

 寸 MEASUREMENT: decimal system uses drops of 10 as a measurement

 専SPECIALTY: specialty or field may change 10 times before sticking to what they like to measure up how good you are

 博DR: needle specialist is a doctor in acupuncture. after 10 specialties you should be a doctor. A dr. with a dot.

 占FORTUNE TELLING: magic rod with a mouth

 上ABOVE: pointing up

 下BELOW: pointing down

 卓EMINENT: eminent means a famous and respected person within a particular sphere or profession. most eminent magicians is one who learned to use his magic wand early in life

 朝MORNING: 10am is opposite of 10pm at night

 只ONLY: it has a big mouth and tiny legs its one of a king. The only one left; only one mouth per 2 legs

 貝SHELLFISH: the beach has a freakish shellfish with a giant eye and slender legs [with shell=oyster/clam]

 貞UPRIGHT: it's only with magic can a clam/shellfish walk upright

 員EMPLOYEE: shut your mouth at work to keep your job put clams on your lips

 見SEE: I see better when I walk up close to it

 児NEWBORN BABE: Father time with a crawling baby (the circle of life) In olden times babies came between the legs now we have c-section

 元BEGINNING:  2 humans were made in the beginning

 頁 PAGE:A drop of shellfish ink can fill a page. A pearl of wisdom on one page

 頑 STUBBORN: Genesis has Cain and able in their ways. Some are too stubborn to read the first page.

凡 MEDIOCRE: A drop in the wind makes no difference. Mediocre people hide under tables.

負DEFEAT: Shell to shell combat; shellfish are defeated with a hook in its head

 万TEN THOUSAND: It's over 9000!

 句PHRASE: Words bound up right to fit into mouth

 肌TEXTURE: Body parts exposed to wing changes texture especially after a month straight bound  up days

 旬DECAMERON: bound up for days, 10 days (decameron is a 10 day period)

 勺LADLE: Bound up every last drip of soup

 的BULL'S EYE: use ladle to paint white part of the bull's eye

 首NECK: nose and eyes go above neck

Non-kanji primitives/parts:

ハ Animal legs

儿 Human legs     

勹 Wrap, bound up (can be compressed)

几 Table, wind

\ / Animal horns

｜ Walking stick, Rod, Stick, Lameness

卜Divining rod or enchanted stick, Prophesy

Day 1: Kanji 1-34

一 ONE: {Ceiling if above, floor if below}

二 TWO: Bottom is longer than the top

三 THREE: 1+2=3

四 FOUR: The monster ate the human's legs in 4 bites

五 FIVE:  三+ || = 5

六 SIX: 8 - 2 = 6 ; A top hat with animal legs is clearly the work of the devil. 666!

七 SEVEN: Upside down 7 with a line though it. [Spoon匕: 7 cuts through]

八 EIGHT: (Hachi) begins with the sound of katakana "ha", and it's about the same character

九 NINE: 九i九e  [ Power 力‎] {Baseball team of 9}

十TEN: {Needle}

口 MOUTH: {Mouth, open, entrance}

日DAY: {Day, sun, tongue wagging in mouth}

月 MONTH: Months are longer than a day {Moon, flesh, part of body}

田RICE FIELD: 4 plots of land from bird's eye view  {Rice field, brains}

目 EYE: See the {eye} in the emoticon: (目_目)

古 OLD: Tombstone  {Old}

吾 I: I have 5 openings in my head

冒 RISKY: Sun in your eyes is risky

朋 COMPANION: Flesh of my flesh (Adam and Eve). True companions stay month after month

明BRIGHT: Sun to rule the day, moon by night. Sun and moon shine bright

唱CHANT: With an open mouth he chanted 2 days. Day after day the same prayer

晶 SPARKLE: Diamonds are sparkly like 3 suns

品GOODS: Looks like shipping crates loaded with goods

呂SPINE: Spine connects head and body

昌 PROSPEROUS: If you work sun up to sun down you will be prosperous

早 EARLY: {Sunflowers} bloom early before 10 Am

旭RISING SUN: Sunrises before 9 am

世GENERATION: The new generations have 2 floors to support them in life. Generation is 10+10+10=30 years

胃STOMACH: The rice field is harvested once a month to fill our stomach

旦NIGHT BREAK: Sunrises over the horizon

胆 GALLBLADDER: Aids in digestion while you sleep until daybreak

亘 SPAN: Span of day sun up to sun down

凹 CONCAVE: Concave box

Learn Kanji by radicals instead of by strokes

Kanji is made up of parts called radicals. If you learn by strokes you will sometimes have over 15 strokes. But if you learn the radicals, kanji becomes much more simple. Radicals are like building blocks and you only need 2-4 to put together a kanji. But it is still important to know how to write kanji in proper stroke order.

My kanji study chart.

My goal is to master the joyo kanji in 1 year. 

1) Meaning, writing and stroke order (3 months)

2) Reading and commonly used words (9 months)

The other kanji on the list will be studied however it is not in my 1 year kanji priority.

How to Learn Japanese Kanji the fun way (Heisig)

"Remembering and learning the Kanji" - How to learn 2,200 Japanese Kanji characters using Heisig (stroke order and meaning) the easy, fun and most importantly - quick way (3-6 months). Also experience the shear frustration of living in a country where you can't read anything and can't do the most basic tasks - like washing your clothes.

When I found out the Japanese language has 3 writing systems (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji)  and that Kanji, has over 2,000 characters I nearly packed up my bags and went home after I finished crying - but after discovering a fun and creative solution to the problem , which turned a hell of a task into a short, enjoyable one, I feel I have to share the method with the world.

The method revolves around a book called "Remembering the Kanji" by Heisig and is very popular for learners of Japanese who struggle with the characters. I highly recommend the book to all. Please read the book intro before starting. Try to make your own stories to make your mnemonic more effective. Follow the book in order.