10 Funny (And Strange) Japanese Expressions

“So busy you’d be willing to borrow a cat’s paw for help”

When there’s nothing you can do in a certain situation, this phrase literally means "a carp on a cutting board".

You use this phrase when talking about two people who hate each other, and it literally means they have “a dog and monkey relationship”.

“Never having had to lift anything heavier than chopsticks”, meaning someone who has never had to work hard.

When you find someone, usually a child, so cute that you have no words to describe it, you can say this phrases, meaning "It won’t hurt to put him/her inside my eye" .

A girl kept in a box. A girl raised very protectively by her family, without being given much freedom.

You know when you really, really want something and you’re thinking that you’ll die if you can’t have it, you say this phrase, which means 'My hand is coming out of my throat'.

What should people who need serious discipline and inspiration do to improve their situation? Well, according to this common Japanese idiom, they should brew the dirt from under the fingernails of someone worthy of respect and drink it like a tea in the hopes that some of the qualities of the person contributing the dirt will somehow be transferred onto them.

“Sheep head, dog meat", meaning false advertising

Literally means "Dumplings rather than flowers". To prefer substance over style, as in to prefer to be given functional, useful items (such as dumplings) instead of merely decorative items (such as flowers).