These are Laverne and Shirley speech bubbles, designed to ensure that neither speech bubble can complain about not getting top billing.

本 is typically a more formal way of expressing “this,” but in this context it’s closer to “source” or “origin.”

Japan’s name uses the same characters in both Chinese and Japanese, but is pronounced differently: “ri ben” in Chinese and “ni hon” in Japanese.

I disagree. To me, “ok” means adequate and unremarkable.

a rubics-cube-shaped bling pendant

I’m imagining a different character on each face of each cubelet, which you would throughly scramble each time for a one-in-whatever-gagillion string? Am I getting that right?

Music major here. Please tell me you need a soundtrack.