spring shower; spring rain
tic-tac-toe; noughts and crosses
best position (for doing something); best vantage point
shirizumo; back-to-back sumo; game in which players push each other with their buttocks
plaster; gypsum; calcium sulphate (sulfate)
sudden change; complete change
intestinal environment; microbiome
modern; up-to-date; art nouveau; Beaujolais nouveau (wine); vague; fuzzy
face outline; contours of a face
getting one's finger caught (e.g. in a door); getting one's finger pinched; jamming one's finger in a door; yakuza finger-cutting ritual
to grasp at straws; to resort to desperate measures
taste; elegance; scenic beauty
hewn stone; quarried stone; ashlar; flagstone
being twice divorced; two-time divorcee; (lit.) two x marks (i.e. two names struck from the family register)
game in which a dangling piece of bread is grabbed in the mouth and raced to the finish line (in school sports festivals)
emergency meeting of the upper house of the Diet (in response to dissolution of the lower house)
vicissitudes; ups and downs
pistil (of a flower); stamen
boobs; female breasts; hooters
sexual reproduction; zoogamy
dinner theater; dinner and a show
heartburn; strong sense of disgust
food sampling area (e.g. in a supermarket)
affection; love; fondness; tenderness
Ooshio Heihachirou (1793-1837)