Kanji of year boring, lame as usual
Like Mark, I find myself profoundly inspired by this year's kanji of the year, viz, 命 (mei, myō, inochi, mikoto, etc.: "life", "order", "target", "highness", etc.). The runners-up are also disappointing: 悠 ("think", "far") because it's in the name of the prince who was born this year; 核 ("nucleus") and 北 ("north") because you-know-who successfully detonated a you-know-what; the everstales like 新 ("new") and 心 ("heart", "soul")... No sign of the playfulness that got 萌 ("moe") into the running last year.
Probably the most interesting way 命 can be used is to write mikoto, which is the "highness" (as in "your") that I mentioned above. "Highness" is, obviously, a gross translation that takes the cultural context out back and breaks its kneecaps; the word mikoto is from /mi/ (honorific) + /koto/ ("word") and was first used to refer respectfully to what gods and emperors said, or did, or were -- the distinction was not always clear-cut, as is often the case with gods and emperors*. In any case, that is why everyone who's anyone in Japanese mythology has a name ending in -no-Mikoto.
Nothing to do with mikado (as in "The") by the way; that's an entirely different circumlocution from /mi/ (honorific) + /kado/ ("gate"). Oh, I guess they share the same honorific.
Anonymous:
I did notice, and I've always wondered about "thing-leaf".