Congratulations to Albert who correctly interpreted the Mystery Kanji as:
He and our only other contestant, Aaron, also offered that the meaning might also carry the nuance of Temple of Morning Light, something which hadn’t occurred to me. Apparently it hasn’t occurred to many Japanese people either, because I asked around if that meaning could also be interpreted and the unequivocal answer to everyone I asked was, “maybe.”
In my experience, in Japanese, “maybe” almost always means “no.” Sorry guys, nice try.
But since these two brave souls were the only two to give it a shot and did get the literal meaning correct, I’ll be sending them both a postcard from Fukuma as their due reward. This won’t always happen, but since it’s the first time, I don’t see why not. What a nice guy I am, eh? Look for your postcards in the mail in about a week or so, guys!
For my next trick, I will now go to sleep. Lates.