My Kanji Adventure: Week 2 Days 3 and 4

Okay, so I finished NatsuNiji (夏の恋は虹色に輝く or Summer Love Shines in Rainbow Colors), and it was okay. I think my favorite part was the few seconds during which Nino appeared in the last episode. Adoooooorable!!!! The story itself was really cute. . .though I think the name they gave it is somewhat weird and doesn't fit. And I maintain that the actress that played Shiori, the lead female character, Takeuchi Yuko, was just wrong for the part. I don't really know how to explain why, but something just seemed wrong about her. Still, overall, I really enjoyed it - I cried and laughed, etc. . .And I thought Matsumoto Jun also did an AMAZING job acting!

Since finishing, I also managed to watch the entire first season (I know, I know, a Japanese drama with more than one season; sheer craziness!) of Gokusen (ごくせん, or Gangster Teacher), which I absolutely LOVED! I am absolutely NOT doing this on purpose, but it seems that every drama I've been watching lately has Matsumoto Jun in it. I'm going to have to make an effort to make sure he's NOT in the next one, which I'm thinking will be Hana Kimi. Anyhow, that said, Gokusen made me realize just what an amazing actor he really is. I have now seen him in SO MANY different roles, and he is totally superb in all of them. And Gokusen was really just so different from everything else I've seen him in, and he really just did so amazing. Even though he looks like a sewer rat, I have to say it, I'm a fan. Oguri Shun was also adoooorable with his bleached blonde hair and braids.

Anyhow, I totally loved it, and I'm looking forward to the second season (though I sort of wish some of the characters from this one would make guest appearances). Now, Kanji!!!!

WEEK 2 DAY 3

牛 - cow
特 - special
告 - revelation
先 - before
洗 - wash
介 - jammed in
界 - world
Basically, our world has become a place where we have to jam as many people into the space by the rice fields as possible.
合 - fit
Two mouths meet, they fit perfectly and make one mouth
塔 - pagoda
王 - king
玉 - jewel
宝 - treasure
珠 - pearl
現 - present (like the present time)
玩 - toy
The first "toy" that people probably played with was a ball
狂 - lunatic
旺 - effulgent
The king of radiance and beauty and light is the sun.
皇 - emperor
呈 -display
"Five little blackbirds making up a pie; isn't that a dainty display to set before the king"
全 - whole
I imagine a very fat king and trying to shove his whole body under one small umbrella
栓 - plug
理 - logic
The king of logic is the computer
主 - lord
注 - pour
柱 - pillar
金 - money
銑 - pig iron
鉢 - bowl

WEEK 2 DAY 4

銅 - copper
釣 - angling (in the sense of catching fish)
針 - needle
銘 - inscription
I just think of the watch I got when I graduated from high school, with my name inscribed on it
鎮 - tranquilize
道 - road
導 - guidance
辻 - crossing
迅 - swift
造 - creating
The road to revelation is creation.
迫 - urge
逃 - escape
There is a portent of evil, so we must use the nearby road to escape
辺 - environs
巡 - patrol
A flood of patrol motorcycles pours onto the road
車 - car
連 - take along
ROAD TRIP!!!!
軌rut
輸 - transport
前 - in front of
煎 - roast
A bull with large horns is holding a butcher over the fire, roasting him!!!! Muahahahaha!!!!
各 - each
格 - status
賂 - graft
I imagine shells grafting themselves together; if each one of them doesn't come, it's pointless. However, the dictionary says that this has the same meaning as 賄, to bribe
略 - abbreviation
No possible way to remember the name of EACH rice field, so we must come up with abbreviations
客 - guest
額 - forehead
The forehead is the guest of the head. I don't know why, but this is how it has stuck in my head.
夏 - summer

I'm thinking that maybe, from now on, I'll just write the ones I have trouble with instead of elaborating every single one of them like I have been doing. We'll see, though.

And that's all for today - it's so hot, I'm going to go play the piano and take a cold shower before I have to go babysit!