I think フレ means friend info in the video game sense, like: 先生とフレを交換してたゲームの。(I’m not sure that’s an entirely correct sentence, 日本語苦手だから, but it’s just to illustrate what it means, feel free to correct me)
I mean, you have フレンド and フレコ from フレンドコード. フレ as a further abbreviation of that makes sense. But where did you get it from?
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判明（はんめい）ー establishing; proving; ascertaining; identifying; confirming
分析（ぶんせき）ー analysis
手段（しゅだん）ー means; way; measure (This one I took the measure meaning too literally and just learned its like “by way of” so now I feel like I need to reread every book I read in the last 8 months xD)
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Sorry for the pop-ups. It’s the first chapter of Ruri Dragon, it’s a veeery casual read, so very abreviated abvreviations make sense I guess. Again, if I’m missing something let me know
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It’s fine, but the second part ゲームの is like:
I was exchanging friend codes with the teacher, for a game.
So not just a single sentence exactly.
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I recently learned the phrase 意外とおいしい or surprisingly tasty.
I work at an elementary school in Japan and my JTE taught me this word after I told her I didn’t expect the corn soup that is sold in the vending machines here to taste so good.
That same day in class I also learned すっぱい (sour), にがい (bitter), and しょっぱい (salty).
Haha can you tell the unit we are on is about food.
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意外 is taught in WK at some point, it just means (unsurprisingly) surprising/unexpected.
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ミイラ meaning mummy. Comes up in chapter 2 of the original Paper Mario.
It has a very weird Kanji writing as well: 木乃伊, where the first one obviously is “tree”, the second one the Kanji form of the particle “no” and the third one can mean “Italy” or “that one”.
Eh yeah, better to memorize in Kana 
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フレ is just short for friend. Another common usage is in セフレ
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Yah, that’s ateji, and rarely used. Word comes from Portuguese “mirra”.
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These 2 cracked me up
かもしれない運転 - careful driving
だろう運転 - reckless driving
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Maneki-nekos originate from Japan?
I also thought they were originally Chinese and Japan also just has them.
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Gotokuji in Tokyo is said to be the origin of them
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I mean the name is clearly Japanese in origin. Are they called something else in Chinese?
I don’t know what they’re called in Chinese, I never thought about it. I just assumed Maneki Neko was the Japanese Name and that they originated in China and probably have another name there.
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īnmāo (“golden cat”). No idea how it’s spelled in hanzi.
Oh wait, I’m stupid…
金猫 probably
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Be smart: Change the language to Japanese on the Wikipedia article 
招財貓
So it’s beckoning wealth “cat”, the chinese Kanji seems to look a bit different.
(I realize that “chinese Kanji” is an absurd thing to say…)
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Not that different, simply that 財 just appears. (Otherwise, Japanese doesn’t tell what is beckoned.)
財招き猫
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Fun fact: fortune cookies also come from Japan. They were called お御籤煎餅, or 辻占煎餅. Temples in Kyoto sold them in the 19th century - you can still buy them around Fushimi. And Kanazawa, curiously.
In any case, they were introduced to America by Japanese restauranteurs (who may have come up with the idea of inserting omikuji into a cookie indepentently, it’s unclear). When America’s Japanese citizens were moved into camps during WWII, their Chinese neighbours were only too happy to take over the fortune cookie market, and they’ve been seen as Chinese ever since.
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