New Phrase: たいようけい (太陽系) & 銀河 (ぎんが) & すいせい (彗星)
Meaning and Thoughts: Here at the Hostel, I was talking to a Japanese person (in English) who was a really good speaker of English, but they stumbled on remembering the word "solar system" たいようけい and couldn't remember the word "galaxy" ぎんが and later I was adding pictures randomly to japanese wikipedia (my new hobby!) and ran across "comet" すいせい so I thought I should add all those words here for all those times each day you talk about such things. uhm, yeah. ^o^

New Phrase: ほうよう （抱擁）
Meaning and Thoughts: Ok.. lets finnish off todays update spree with a word I learned yesterday! Yes, I said yesterday! Although knowing informal sound-words and the such for this, I never new the formal word for hug or in this case, its more like embrace but had to learn it quickly for some translation I was doing. Not sure how often its used. Anyway, hugs to all the nihongo learners!

New Phrase: せいかく (性格)
Meaning and Thoughts: I think I learned this one from TV. With those kanji it means personality, but seems like it could also mean authentic or some such with different kanji. You've been warned.

New Phrase: つみき (積木）
Meaning and Thoughts: Yup. Mark it up. Another shockingly useful word. Building blocks. Use it!?!

New Phrase: こくせき （国籍）
Meaning and Thoughts: now for a high-flying word to make you sound all smart and pollitically correct. uhm. yeah. I was trying to buy tickets to korea with nakayama's help when I came across this word which means "nationality" in a very fancy, formal way. (if you wanted to be technical, I guess this word could be translated as "country of registerd origin" or somethign silly.)

New Phrase: かせき （化石）
Meaning and Thoughts: a word you'll use every day! fossil... litterally "chemical stone" or something. I dare you to work that into a conversation today!

New Phrase: ゆうじゅうふだん (優柔不断)
Meaning and Thoughts: think I learned this one as it was used to describe me, an indecisive person ... it has a lot of kana so you might want to say it to yourself a few times before skimming on, its quite a mouth-full.

New Phrase: かんばん （看板）
Meaning and Thoughts: used instead of CM (which is for TV) to refer to a billboard AD... this is one of many words I emailed to myself (from the keitai I had at the time) after learning but forgot to post it on here.

New Phrase: もうもく & もんもう
Meaning and Thoughts: These are two words I kept switching, and its important to know the difference. もうもく is a useful word meaning blind. However!もんもう is a (not so often used) word meaning illiterate.. dont confuse them.

New Phrase: せいかつ (生活)
Meaning and Thoughts: been awhile since I've updated, but I'm not gone! hardly.. I've just been busy with my day to day life and yes, thats what the new word means. I learned it from an email I got today, don't know why I didn't know it before. Was used in the context: 韓国での生活はどう?