My Kanji Adventure: Days 2 and 3

I spent the last three days, between kanji studying and working, watching Ikemen Desu Ne (イケメンですね), a Japanese drama about a nun who poses as her brother in a pop band while he recovers from having broken his nose. Apparently, it was based on a Korean drama. I loved it SO much that I might just have to watch the Korean version as well. I fell in love with all of the characters, and I was totally routing for the love connection that seemed to be getting the least attention (as is, somehow, always the case with me. Guess I have weird taste).

Anyhow I'm super sad it's over, I miss the characters, and I might just have to watch it again. In the meantime, though, I have started One Pound Gospel （１ポンドの福音）, which also has a nun, and which I am loving. :-) But which is not Ikemen Desu Ne. :-(
Anyhow, KANJI STUDYING! I'd say it's going pretty well! DAY 2
白 - white
百 - hundred
中 - inside
千 - thousand
舌 - tongue
升 - measuring cup
It could be because I don't really have a clear image of what this is, but I had SO much trouble remembering this one. So, I just think of it as 1000 needles, and then I think of a shot class, used to measure sake, covered in those 1000 needles. And that sort of does it.
昇 - rise up
And, perhaps because it uses measuring cup as a primitive, I have a ton of trouble with this one, too. So I think of the top kanji as a mouth with a wagging tongue and the bottom kanji as that needle covered sake glass. If that wagging tongue goes to take a drink, which is does, the person can't help but rise up out of their seat in shock and pain. It's stretching things a bit far, but it's the best I've got.
丸 - round
寸 - measurement, glue
He says: one drop of a ten. Hopefully that will eventually do the trick. Luckily, I have more trouble remembering the story than remembering the kanji.
肘 - elbow
The elbow is the flesh that holds/glues the body together, as it is what connects the body to our hands, which are basically our livelihood
専 - specialty
Having a specialty is like taking 10 separate aspects of one field and gluing them all together in your mind to make one thing that you are supremely awesome at.
博 - Dr.
A doctor uses a fine pointed needle to glue those fields together, and don't forget the . at the end/top for the abbreviation
占 - fortune telling
上 - above
下 - below
卓 - eminent
I thought I would never remember his story, but, bizarrely enough, I find the image becoming clearer and clearer in my head: her eminent highness the sunflower queen running around lazily with a sunflower as a magic wand
朝 - morning
嘲 - ridicule, derision
morning mouth
只 - only
貝 - shells, shellfish
Though he doesn't say it, I find that it really helps in forming other kanji if I remember with this one as paper as well
唄 - pop song
Taking what's on paper, the music, and having it come out of your mouth
貞 - upright
員 - employee
貼 - post a bill
見 - see
DAY 3
児 - newborn babe
元 - beginning
頁 - page, head
頑 - stubborn
凡 - mediocre
The wind is amazingly strong, but just one drop of wind - not so much. I'd even call it mediocre.
負 - defeat
I keep the image of a person crumpling up a piece of paper in defeat; no matter how much they study, they just can't do it
万 - ten thousand
句 - phrase
肌 - texture
旬 - decameron (season for something)
勺 - ladle
的 - bull's eye
I thought I would NEVER remember his story of a white bird being painted in the middle of a bull's eye on an old rusty ladle. And that bird going chirp every time it's hit. But now, every time I see this kanji, I hear the bird chirp in my head.
首- neck
乙 - fish guts, hook
I find that I remember this thanks to the adorableness of Yaotome Hikaru (八乙女 光)
乱 - riot
直 - straightaway
具 - tool
真 - truth
工 - craft
左 - left
右 - right
有 - possess
賄 - bribe
貢 - tribute
Making a tribute is crafting paper into money or shells into something else to serve a purpose
項 - paragraph
AGH! I have SO much trouble with this one. Crafting heads, what? Crafting pages, what? Somehow, it seems like it should make sense, but it just REFUSES to stick in my head.
刀 - sword
刃 - blade