This stylized white flower is generally depicted as a rosette-shaped cherry blossom in pink or red outline, often with a white fill.

The design features a Japanese phrase 大変よくできました (taihen yoku dekimashita). It roughly translates to “very well done” and teachers use it as a stamp for students who did exceptional work, often accompanied by a score in red.

Some versions, like the Korean Samsung one, have no Japanese characters in them.

Maybe it’s one of the strangest emojis here. This is a glyph (a symbol that conveys information nonverbally) that represents cute, adorable, and lovable things in Japan, also referred to as “kawaii”.

In today’s conversations, it also symbolises items such as diamonds, crystals, ice cubes, and flowers.

This red symbol often appears in Anime/Manga and represents the veins popping on a very angry person.

It also generally appears in comic books to indicate a punch, perhaps next to the words “Bam” or “Pow”.

It represents hot springs with steam rising from a circular tub. This is the common symbol used to represent an onsen on maps in Japan.

Just like a regular dash (hyphen), it sometimes appears in Asian character sets in the same way a – or — appears in Latin character sets.

Uses in Japanese include:

• To suggest a ruled line: 〜〜〜〜〜 or 〜・〜・〜
• To indicate ranges 5時〜6時, from 5 o’clock to 6 o’clock; 東京〜大阪 from Tokyo to Osaka. In such cases, it reads as …kara…made (…から…まで)
• To indicate origin/starting point as in フランス〜 (from France), 1000yen〜 (price from 1000 yen..on)
• To separate a title from a subtitle on the same line; in English a colon is used for this purpose.
• To indicate a long or drawn-out vowel (ですよね〜 or あ〜〜〜), usually for comic or cute effect
• To indicate or suggest that music is playing: ♬ 〜

This is NOT tofu on fire. It is a name badge like those used to identify oneself in a location where others may not know your name, such as a school trip or a work conference.

This tulip-shaped name badge is one of many designs commonly found at kindergartens in Japan.

This yellow and green shield symbol has a name: Shoshinsha Mark. Drivers in Japan must display it for one year after receiving their driver’s license. People must stick them at the front and the rear of their cars to warn others that the driver is not very skilled due to inexperience. There is also a four-leafed “kōreisha mark” that denotes elderly drivers.

Two curly loops represent a reel-to-reel tape recorder and are used as a voicemail symbol on many phones. Initially, this symbol was the logo of Free Dial, a service from the Japanese telephone provider NTT that indicated toll-free telephone number service. In that case, the receiver got the telephone charges instead of the calling party (these numbers often start with 800).