I was having dinner with a Japanese friend one night and we were served tea in those huge handeless mugs as is customary in Japanese restaurants. I was killing time by bugging him about Nihongo [Japanese] and learned something very vaulable thanks to these mugs.

They were covered with kanji. Kanji are Chinese characters used in Japanese written language and are multitudenous and difficult even for Japanese people to learn. I asked him what it said.

"Dunno. I think it's a list of different kinds of fish."

He's Japanese and didn't know what was written on the mug. -_- But he did recognize the character 'sakana' or 'fish'. Astounded, I asked him how the hell people got by with a language they couldn't read! He then solved a big mystery for me:

There are little pronunciation guides called furagana on top of kanji that tell you how to pronounce the word and hence, help you understand what it means. You still have to know your kanji, but the guides help a ton.

"So THAT'S what that is!" I chimed. All those little squiggles next to the big squiggles. So, below, are big and little squiggles that mean lots of stuff. This wasn't that easy to do, so please no stealing. This kanji reads left to right.

I've also included the names of fancharacters used in my stories and my own name in this list.

I used the Japanese manga, image book and movie program as well as a Japanese dictionary, Babelfish and various and sundry sites from all over the web to come up with these brief explanations about the meanings behind the characters' names. Thanks go out to Liwen Deng, Koshi-sama and Fran Code.

Romanization .......................Syllables Kanji .......................................Hiragana		Notes and/or breakdown of the kanji characters
		Blue Hair Sarah
		inu=dog. yasha=demon. More about this below.
		'wickedness seeing'
		'snake bone'
		'maple tree/leaf'
		higurashi=sunset. kago=basket. family name is in kanji, personal name is in hiragana.
		1st character kami = god, 2nd character raku = comfort. a Kagura is a ritual dance to please a god.
		1st=ash 2nd=blade 3rd=cell
		a Kikyo is a Chinese Bellflower, which is a blueish-purple flower. More below.
		'mica' .... too much going on with this name, see more info below.
		amber [a semiprecious stone]
		1=steel 2=fang
		agate [a semiprecious stone]
		Japanese name for Bodhisattva Maitreya [see note below]
		Beautiful Sky [named for enka singer Hibari Misora]
		divine favor
		Difficult Red
		'cellar', also an outdated word for hell.
		Benevolent King [see note about -maru below]
		'phosphorus' from greek 'phosphoras'= 'bringer of light' also a mineral. hiragana only.
		coral which can also be considered a semiprecious stone
		'destruction of life'. see note about 'maru' below.
		'ball of four souls'
		'shippo'. See more info below.
		Empty Child
		The grass, it is thick'
		heaven life fang 'ten'='heaven' 'sei'='life' 'kiba'='fang'
		iron breaking fang. tetsu=iron, kuda=break, kiba=fang
		tou=fighting oni=demon kami=god
		positive help