上がる
a-ga-ru
When rain goes up, it has stopped
The picture Something low rises. When it has risen all the way, that thing is finished. 上がる rises and fills up; 下がる falls and drains away.
Where the picture shows up in 上がる
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A number climbs
来月から家賃が上がります。
raigetsu kara yachin ga agari-masu
Rent goes up next month.
The needle on the rent dial is pushed up one notch.
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Stepping up into a house
靴を脱いで上がってください。
kutsu o nuide agatte kudasai
Please take off your shoes and come up.
Shoes come off and a foot lifts onto the floor one step above the entryway.
A Japanese entryway sits a step lower, so you literally step up into the house.
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The body's number climbs
熱がもっと上がってきました。
netsu ga motto agatte kimashita
My fever has gone up.
The red line in the thermometer is pushed further up the scale.
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Risen all the way, so it stops
雨が上がりましたね。
ame ga agari-mashita ne
The rain has stopped.
The rain lifts upward off the street until the sky is clear.
The picture is rain rising away until there is none left to fall.
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Work reaches the top
仕事は五時に上がります。
shigoto wa go-ji ni agari-masu
I get off work at five.
The day's work fills the column right up to the five o'clock line, with no space left above it.
All of it in one picture
上がる is one arrow pointing up. The dial climbs and the rent rises; a foot climbs a step and you are inside the house; the red line climbs and the fever is worse; the rain climbs off the street and it has stopped; the day fills to the top line and work is over. So 上がる carries two things at once: the motion upward, and the sense that once it has gone all the way up, the thing is finished there.