Now Out: Essay 2049 on 膳 (low personal dining table) and New-Monics

The 155th essay has posted! Essay 2049 on 膳 (low personal dining table; tray; meal; counter for bowls of rice; counter for pairs of chopsticks) is now available for purchase. Here's a preview:

Learn about inventions in Japanese dining, such as box trays and low personal tables, both of which people whisk away after meals. Read about formal meals in which one eats from dishes on multiple trays, and learn when a tray should or shouldn't have legs. Find out why a popular bento box has theater connections and why one meal-related term means "a woman's sexual advances."

Using the accompanying Phrase Maze game on the Character Home Page, you can practice the vocabulary in the essay after reading it. 

There are also several new-monics (which are free!):

塾 (1370 cram school)
瞬 (1372: wink)
旬 (1373: ten-day period)
娠 (1436: pregnancy)
振 (1437: to shake)
籍 (1486: to enroll)
掃 (1519: to sweep)
突 (1668: to stab)
露 (1935: dew)