Vocabulary

watchdog; guard dog

foolhardiness; recklessness; savage valour; savage valor; brute courage

straight face; composed expression; nonchalant look

to clear; to make clear

sphere of influence

to revive; to come to oneself; to be restored to life

to cut down; to prune; to reduce; to cut and hang down; to cut shorter

retrenchment; curtailment

steep; precipitous

to rise perpendicularly; to tower steeply

ground; earth; grounding; earthing

kiss; kissing

to prepare; to provide

snowy valley

a short while ago; just now

astrology

stain; spot; smudge; blot; smear; blotch

seasickness

coarse; rough

monastery; temple

magnificent; grand; splendid; imposing

operation (of trains)

simultaneously striking one another (in kendo, etc.)

sumo wrestler; rikishi

growing impudent; becoming arrogant; getting stuck-up

geodetic survey

another shop; another store; another restaurant

secret (method, trick, etc.); key (e.g. to success); mysteries (of an art, trade, etc.); recipe; trick

unproductive; counterproductive

to fly away; to flee away; to scatter

flowery words; rhetorical flourishes

expression; presentation

earthenware pot

everlasting; immortal; eternal; enduring; undying; imperishable

unkindness; unfriendliness

prefectural office (of Osaka or Kyoto)

double-entry (e.g. bookkeeping)

art of war; strategy; tactics

disguise; masquerade

to think up; to think out; to work out; to come up with; to devise; to invent