plus; addition; positive number; gain; advantage; anode
repechage; revival series
August; eighth month of the lunar calendar
middle of a month; second third of a month; 11th to 20th day of a month
Kanto; region consisting of Tokyo and surrounding prefectures; Kanto; north-eastern half of Japan (during the feudal era)
blocking (e.g. the way); obstructing; block (lump of something (usu. square), area of town, etc.); block; physical record (e.g. on magnetic tape); concrete block; blocking (from view, esp. of websites, on social media, etc.)
to bite into (e.g. rope into skin); to cut into; to eat into; to encroach; to be wedged (i.e. underwear pulled from the back, driving it between the buttocks)
the strait gate (in the Bible); the narrow gate; high barrier (to enter a highly competitive school, company, etc.); difficult hurdle; difficulty
January; first month of the lunar calendar
every day; daily; day after day; days (e.g. good old days)
to pile up; to accumulate
house; home; one's house; one's home; one's husband
pile (fabric, nuclear reactor, structural support, etc.)
to examine; to look up; to investigate; to check up; to sense; to study
to pile up; to heap up; to stack up; to repeat many times over; to go through repeatedly; to accumulate
horizontal (as opposed to vertical); lying down; side-to-side (as opposed to front-to-back); width; side (of a box, etc.); beside
division; section; demarcation; (traffic) lane; compartment; classification
gotcha; alrighty; got it; OK
to play a hand game (e.g. rock, paper, scissors)
to go under; to pass under; to dive (into or under the water); to evade; to get around; to survive
passage; pathway; roadway; avenue; aisle
vast; extensive; immense; huge; large; grand
dojo; hall used for martial arts training; manda (place of Buddhist practice or meditation, esp. the place under the bodhi tree where Buddha attained enlightenment)
floor; stage (for the narrator and the shamisen player); dining platform built across a river
swordsman; swordswoman; fencer
to compete ruthlessly; (lit.) to sharpen swords
creepy (feeling); uneasy (feeling); bad (feeling); giving one the creeps; hideous; scaring
winding; meandering; zigzagging; zig-zag; in twists and turns; sinuously
to mince; to cut fine; to carve; to engrave; to tick away (time); to beat out (e.g. rhythm); to etch (into one's mind)
all sides; the four cardinal directions and the four ordinal directions; large hanging lantern
seed (e.g. of a plant); pip; material (e.g. for an article); matter (e.g. of a story); ingredient; leaven (bread); cause
nest; rookery; den; haunt; (spider's) web
head; lead; vanguard; first
to set foot into; to enter; to step inside; to cross the threshold