面白 Interesting: Face + White

Interesting is an interesting word. It’s made of face and white. My first guess is that it has something to do with kabuki in which the actors paint their face white and perform interesting plays.

危機 Crisis: Danger + Opportunity

Crisis is a compound word made from the characters that mean ‘danger’ and ‘opportunity’. Danger shows a dangerous person looking at dead body and the base of cliff. The kanji for opportunity show someone at a wooden loom. Perhaps he’s started a business making nets to capitalize on the number of people ‘falling’ off the cliff.