Kanji - Level 10 - Kanji

Question 1

進

Answer 1

Advance
Radicals: ⻌ scooter + 隹 turkey
You give your scooter to a turkey so that it can advance. The turkey was trying and failing to walk through a crowded street, so out of the goodness of your heart you gave it a scooter so it could advance.
Reading: しん
You wave as the turkey advances into the street at top speeds, collides with a car, and scrapes up its shins (しん) almost immediately. Ah!

Question 2

酒

Answer 2

Alcohol
Radicals: 氵tsunami + 酉 alcohol
A tsunami is an alcoholic beverage containing a lot of alcohol. It’s 3 different kinds of rums, pineapple juice, and grenadine. It’ll hit you like a tsunami though. This alcoholic drink has a kick to it.
Reading: しゅ
As you lie on this beach, the alcohol keeps coming down a chute (しゅ), straight into your mouth. You can feel the sand in your toes and the alcohol sliding down your throat from this special tsunami chute.

Question 3

始

Answer 3

Begin
Radicals: 女 woman + 台 machine
If you give a woman a machine she’ll begin learning how to use it right away. She’ll also get it to start before anyone else could. Women are really good at starting up new machines!
Reading: し
Actually, before she can begin, she has to shear the sheep (し) over there. The machine is going to turn wool into yarn, but you can’t just start that process by shoving the sheep in there. You have to keep the little sheep safe!

Question 4

業

Answer 4

Business
Radicals: 业 spikes + 羊 sheep + ハ fins
If a sheep is having trouble trying to eat a fish with spikes on its fins, then the sheep probably has no business trying to eat it in the first place. Don’t sheep usually eat like, grass and stuff? What is this sheep doing trying to eat a fish with spikes on its fins? What silly business this is.
Reading: ぎょう
What’s this? The sheep is also trying to eat some gyoza (ぎょう) dumplings! Where will this sheep’s madness end? First spikey finned fish and now gyoza? This is some crazy business.

Question 5

算

Answer 5

Calculate
Radicals: 竹 bamboo + 目 eye + 廾 twenty
If you get stabbed in the eye twenty times with bamboo, you’re going to have a hard time beginning to calculate where anything is. Taking a bamboo shoot to the eye is no pleasant experience, especially if done twenty times. You’d be blinded for sure. And a newly blinded person is going to have one heck of a time calculating where everything is without the power of sight.
Reading: さん
Do you know how Santa-san (さん) punishes naughty boys and girls in Asia? He doesn’t give them coal, Santa-san tortures them with twenty bamboo jabs to the eye. Yikes. Do you know how Santa-san calculates who is naughty and who is nice? By their school grades, of course.

Question 6

運

Answer 6

Carry
Radicals: ⻌ scooter + 冖 forehead + 車 car
While riding your scooter, you bang your forehead on the car in front. Your scooter’s wrecked, so you have to carry it home. You’ll need a lot of luck to get that scooter home safely.
Reading: うん
As you carry the scooter, your luck turns, and it starts to rain, so you pull out your umbrella (うん). Now you’re holding your scooter, your forehead, and an umbrella.

Question 7

漢

Answer 7

Chinese
Radicals: 氵tsunami + 𦰩 chinese
A tsunami hit ancient China and formed the Chinese country we know now as… China!
Reading: かん
You peer closer at China and realize the borders are inching inward, even though the tsunami is already gone. You look even closer and see the Mongols, being led by Genghis Khan (かん) moving in to conquer all of the Chinese people living in China!

Question 8

鳴

Answer 8

Chirp
Radicals: 口 mouth + 鳥 bird
When a bird opens its mouth, you’re most likely to hear a chirp. This is how birds communicate. They open their mouths and let out a series of chirps. Chirp chirp chirp!
Reading: な
The best way to experience the chirp chirping of birds is to offer them nachos(な). Birds love nachos so much, it’s a guaranteed way to make them chirp with delight.

Question 9

集

Answer 9

Collect
Radicals: 隹 turkey + 木 tree
You chase a turkey up a tree to collect it. At least, you will once you’ve gathered enough turkeys into this one tree.
Reading: しゅう
Once you’ve collected enough turkeys, you’re going to turn them into a shoe (しゅう). Maybe even two shoes, but that will mean gathering even more turkeys!

Question 10

配

Answer 10

Distribute
Radicals: 酉 alcohol + 己 oneself
You don’t want to keep all the alcohol to yourself (oneself), so you distribute it to all of your friends. Heck, not just your friends, to everyone you can find!
Reading: はい
As you distribute the alcohol you say a haiku (はい):
Here you go my friends
Alcohol for everyone
Never drink alone

Question 11

飲

Answer 11

Drink
Radicals: 食 eat + 欠 lack
You can eat all you want, but you’ll still lack something to drink. You can’t live just from eating, you have to drink things too!
Reading: の
You get desperate for a drink and put some nori (の) seaweed in a blender, trying to create a drink of your own.

Question 12

終

Answer 12

End
Radicals: 糸 thread + 夂 winter + 二 two
The thread of winter splits in two when the year comes to an end. One half symbolizes the year you were just in, and the other symbolizes the new year beginning, cutting winter in half and finishing off the year.
Reading: しゅう
Right as winter ends you grab the two threads and lace them into your shoes (しゅう). Oh, you thought these were metaphorical? No they’re real threads, although, they’re technically shoe laces now.

Question 13

顔

Answer 13

Face
Radicals: 立 stand + 厂 cliff + 彡 hair + 頁geoduck
Here you stand, a hair’s breadth away from the edge of a cliff, when out of nowhere a geoduck slaps you right in the face. Geoducks are gross, and you back away from the edge of the cliff you were standing but a hair’s breadth away from just before. Your face is all gooey from the geoduck’s slimy residue.
Reading: かお
But where did that geoduck come from anyway? As you turn around from the cliff edge, wiping the goop from your face and out of your eyes, you see an angry cow (かお). This cow is the one who hit you in the face with this geoduck. I know not the reason, but this cow is most definitely not happy with you.

Question 14

落

Answer 14

Fall
Radicals: 艹 flowers + 氵tsunami + 各 kiss
A violent tsunami causes flowers to be ripped from the branches of trees and they swirl around and kiss your face gently as they fall. With the tsunami came a great windy storm that blew many flowers all about. It’s a pretty sight amongst all the destruction.
Reading: らく
You want to save these flowers you see falling in around you, so you take out a drying rack (らく) and place them carefully on it. Now whenever you feel scared, you can look at the flowers on this rack and you won’t be scared anymore.

Question 15

農

Answer 15

Farming
Radicals: 曲 music + 辰 landslide
You blast your music loud so it causes a landslide, revealing the perfect soil for farming! Musically moved dirt is perfect for agriculture.
Reading: のう
The first person to come up with this farming method was Nostradamus (のう), the famous seer and prophecy man. He predicted humans of the future would use special “yell cubes” to “move that good earth.”

Question 16

速

Answer 16

Fast
Radicals: ⻌ scooter + 束 bundle
You jump on your scooter with a big bundle to go as fast as you can! You have a bundle of pizzas in here, and they need to be delivered as fast as you can get them there!
Reading: そく
You were going so fast, you only put on socks (そく). So now you’re barreling down the street at top speeds in just your sad, white socks.

Question 17

頭

Answer 17

Head
Radicals: 豆 beans + 頁 geoduck
If a geoduck eats lots of beans, its head will grow larger. To a geoduck, beans are a brain food, so by eating beans, a geoduck’s head will grow incredibly large. Geoducks already look strange enough as it is, let alone with engorged heads.
Reading: あたま, かしら
As the geoduck eats more and more beans, its head gets bigger and bigger until finally the geoduck’s head explodes like an atomic (あたま) bomb. BOOM! Geoduck parts go flying everywhere and pieces of the geoduck’s massive head float to the ground as atomic fallout.

Question 18

聞

Answer 18

Hear
Radicals: 門 gate + 耳 ear
If you press your ear up to a gate, you’re likely to hear what’s going on on the other side. The other people on the other side won’t know you are listening to their conversation because you are so sneaky and clever. They’ve no idea you’re on the other side of the gate hearing every word they say.
Reading: ぶん, もん
From the other side of the gate, you hear one of the people on the other side start to play a song on a recorder. You recognize the song as “Hot Cross Buns (ぶん).” You haven’t heard this song in a long time. “Hot cross buns… hot cross buns~”

Question 19

院

Answer 19

Institution
Radicals: 阝building + 宀 roof + 元 origin
This building has a roof and will teach you about the origin of many things. It’s an institution!
Reading: いん
What does institution start with? In (いん)!

Question 20

調

Answer 20

Investigate
Radicals: 言 say + 周 circumference
You say something about the circumference of this area. You’ve looked around this whole area, making a big circle around it, because you are trying to investigate something that happened here. You also say this thing in a really quiet tone of voice, because you don’t want the person or thing you’re investigating to know you’re on to them.
Reading: ちょう
“I came here to investigate this place, and I did indeed find out who the criminal is… it’s none other than Mrs. Chou (ちょう)!”

Question 21

鉄

Answer 21

Iron
Radicals: 金 gold + 失 fault
You look at some gold and notice a fault in it. You scrape at the fault and see that it’s just sprayed with gold paint. It’s not gold, it’s (comparatively) worthless iron!
Reading: てつ
Do you know that movie, Tetsuo (てつ) the Iron Man? It’s one of the wackiest Japanese movies of all time. If you don’t know about Tetsuo the Iron Man, you should definitely look it up (if you aren’t averse to horror/violent films). Tetsuo is one of the most insane movies in the history of ever.

Question 22

語

Answer 22

Language
Radicals: 言 say + 五 five + 口 mouth
What you say between five mouths is a language. As long as there are five different people saying these same words with their five mouths, it’s considered its own language.
Reading: ご
Another mouth joins in speaking the language, but it’s green and scaled and… it’s Godzilla’s (ご) mouth! Godzilla speaks this language too.

Question 23

葉

Answer 23

Leaf
Radicals: 艹 flowers + 世 world + 木 tree
In the world of flowers and trees, the most important thing is the leaf. Leaves are how flowers and trees get their nutrients from the sun!
Reading: は, ば
Picture a little flower working really hard to grow its first leaf. The leaf pops out and it shouts, “Ha (は)!”

Question 24

習

Answer 24

Learn
Radicals: 羽 feathers + 白 white
You find some white feathers and you want to learn more about where they came from and what they’re made of.
Reading: しゅう
You learn that you should tie these white feathers to your shoes (しゅう). You do it before you learn what it will do, and then suddenly you’re jump-flying out of the building.

Question 25

軽

Answer 25

Lightweight
Radicals: 車 car + 圣 tombstone
For a car, a tombstone is lightweight. Cars are very strong, you see, so something heavy like a tombstone is no match for them. All cars find tombstones to be light and easy to transport.
Reading: かる, かろ
What do you wish you had to transport this tombstone? Oh, that’s right, a car. So you need some kind of car loophole (かる). If you had a car, this tombstone moving business would be no problem. To cars, tombstones are naught but lightweight pebbles! But the rules say you can’t use cars to carry tombstones, so you need to find a car loophole.

Question 26

線

Answer 26

Line
Radicals: 糸 thread + 白 white + 水 water
If someone falls overboard while you’re white water rafting, you can use a long piece of thread as a life line. Sure it might be thin, but a line of thread is better than nothing. Throw them a line and drag them back aboard! Those white water rapids are vicious.
Reading: せん
The person who threw you that line of thread is actually a centaur (せん). How kind of him. After you are safe you hop on the centaur’s back and ride around to get the wind to dry you off.

Question 27

最

Answer 27

Most
Radicals: 日 sun + 耳 ear + 又 stool
Let the sun shine into your ear while sitting on a stool and make sure most of it gets in your head. You want to fill your brain with the most sun anyone ever has.
Reading: さい
Most of this is for your cyborg (さい). You’re testing out a new way to power it, but if you can’t get most of the sun into your ear, it won’t be enough to power most of the cyborg’s robo-parts.

Question 28

開

Answer 28

Open
Radicals: 門 gate + 开 lantern
A gate with a lantern is open for you. That’s convenient, since it’s pretty dark out and you might not have seen the open gate without the lantern’s help.
Reading: かい
This open gate is in the water though, so you’ll need a kayak (かい) to get in. Luckily, you’ve been carrying your kayak with you just in case.

Question 29

頁

Answer 29

Page
Radicals: 頁 geoduck
Did you know that those strange geoduck creatures were once used to make pages? Okay maybe not, but it makes for a memorable image!
Reading: ページ, ぺーじ, かしら
A page is a page (ページ).

Question 30

親

Answer 30

Parent
Radicals: 立 stand + 木 tree + 見 see
If you’re standing under a tree and you see your parent, it’s a good chance for a moment of intimacy.
Reading: しん
Standing under the tree, you go to give your parent a big hug, but you manage to bang your shin (しん) on a huge tree root. Your parent pulls you in for a warm hug and rubs your shin. Despite the pain, it becomes an unforgettable “shin-timate” moment.

Question 31

公

Answer 31

Public
Radicals: ハ fins + ム private
You have fins in private. But, you want the world to see them, so you take them public.
Reading: こう
You head out into the public where everyone can see your fins, but… things have changed. All people are the same. There are thousands of こういちs walking around, and they all stare at you (though they pretend like they aren’t).

Question 32

読

Answer 32

Read
Radicals: 言 say + 売 sell
You have to say what you’re selling because people don’t like to read. If they walk right by and don’t read, you better say what you have for sale so they’ll know! Read it out loud to them.
Reading: よ
What are you forced to read aloud to sell? Yo-yo (よ) instructions! You’d think they’d be self explanatory, but there are actually a lot of rules and tricks that you have to read to get good at yo-yoing. Read all of these out loud so you can sell them.

Question 33

求

Answer 33

Request
Radicals: 一 ground + 水 water + 丶drop
On the ground is a water drop you spilled, so I request you wipe it up. I would do it myself, but you’re the one who spilled it, so I’m requesting you do it and take responsibility for your mistake.
Reading: きゅう
Oh, one more thing. I request that you wipe up the water with this cucumber (きゅう).

Question 34

転

Answer 34

Revolve
Radicals: 車 car + 云 cloud
If your car runs into a cloud you’ll revolve around it instead of going straight through. Clouds are really hard to see through, so even though you’re trying not to, you revolve in a tight circle up and around the cloud anyway.
Reading: てん
You have to revolve around the cloud ten (てん) times before it disappears and you’re able to go through.

Question 35

路

Answer 35

Road
Radicals: 足 foot + 各 kiss
If you’ve been walking all day, nobody is going to want to kiss your foot if you’ve been walking barefoot down a dirt road. Your feet are filthy, sweaty, and stinky. Nobody is going to want to kiss those feet.
Reading: ろ
What was this person walking down again? Oh, that’s right – a road (ろ). They were walking down a dirt road.

Question 36

病

Answer 36

Sick
Radicals: 疒 sick + 丙 dynamite
A sick stick of dynamite is going to be sick forever. Unfortunately there are no medicines that are effective on sticks of dynamite, so once they contract a sickness, they’re sick for good.
Reading: びょう
Being nervous all the time about spontaneously exploding would probably make you sweat profusely. And you know what sweating causes? B.O. (びょう). You’d be one smelly stick of dynamite. B.O. is a very unpleasant smell, and being sick is no excuse.

Question 37

横

Answer 37

Side
Radicals: 木 tree + 黄 yellow
The tree marked with a yellow X on the side of the house is going to get cut down. You’ve marked it with a yellow X so the hired help knows which tree to cut down. There are a lot of trees on the side of the house, but the tree marked with a yellow X is the only one in danger of causing damage to your roof in the event of a storm.
Reading: よこ
Wait, that woman with the chainsaw is Yoko (よこ) Ono! Yes, the same Yoko Ono who’s married to John Lennon of the Beatles. What’s she doing chopping down trees on the side of your house? Who can say. Silly Yoko.

Question 38

歌

Answer 38

Song
Radicals: 可 lip ring + 欠 lack
If you lack a lip ring (or two in this case) it’s going to make it way easier for you to sing a song.
Reading: か
You’re singing a song with all these lip rings in your mouth and you sound terrible. You’re on the side of the road singing. People are freaking out. Finally, someone drives into you with their car (か).

Question 39

起

Answer 39

Wake up
Radicals: 走 run + 己 oneself
Run into oneself in a dream and you’ll definitely wake up.
Reading: お
If one runs into oneself and you don’t wake up, just look down at your waist. If you’re wearing an obi (お) you know it’s a dream and you’ll eventually wake up. If you aren’t wearing an obi then it isn’t a dream and you don’t have anything to wake up from.