Teeth (歯)

My teeth hurt. 

Japanese is interesting in the amount of idioms that involve body parts, including the head, the mouth, the nose, the shoulders, the heart......but also, surprisingly, teeth. 
Some listed here. 

1.) 歯が立たない- literally, can't chew or hard to chew: I'm no match for the Japanese language.

2.) 歯がゆい - Teeth are itchy- meaning to be impatient. One of my biggest flaws, and possibly a killer one for any future relationships I have. I value time a lot, but kind of obsessively so, so that I'll get impatient waiting in traffic, waiting in line, or any kind of waiting whatsoever.



I floss not nearly enough, I don't like going to the dentist, and my lower jaw hurts sometimes because I have a nervous habit of biting down on my teeth during sleep (my dentist says to alleviate stress created during the day. I've started wearing a mouthguard, but I find that I dream a lot about food if I do wear a mouthguard and find myself biting down on it more, it's almost like a bone for a dog. Dunno which one is really helping. I also have a pretty severe underbite, which is pretty unusual but caused by the structure of my jaw. Can't get it fixed without "major" surgery anymore and it doesn't really cause any problems except aesthetically, and when I smile I have to try to actively just my upper jaw out so that it matches the lower jaw. I don't have a great smile. 

親知らず (oyashirazu) - wisdom teeth. I've never had my wisdom teeth pulled out, and they're just sitting there on the side of my mouth, always a threat to cause a cold sore, never helping in the cause (as far as I can tell) of gnashing up food. Really useless. My dentist told me to have it removed earlier, but it's really not causing any damage right now, so I decided not to. Possibly a bad move? Could be a scam by dentists to create more work for themselves (lawyers do it all the time!), but if it does cause a problem, I'll probably have to get them removed. (In Japanese, wisdom teeth are literally translated as "not knowing your parents." Weird. 


Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

Reconciliation (仲直り)

Reconciliation is a pretty important concept in any language, and the Japanese have a special word for it as well: 仲直り, (nakanaori), or literally "curing the relationship." 

It's never easy to reconcile with a friend, because consider the circumstances: 2 people meet, they realize they have a lot in common, they begin a friendship, and somewhere along the way something causes a rift: liking the same guy, an argument, money issues, not hanging out enough, taking the other one for granted, etc. Usually both parties feel that the other did something wrong. Before reconciling, one faces all sorts of obstacles: does the other person even want to reconcile, am I still upset about things that caused a breakup, why do I have to make the first move, whose fault is it really (sometimes it's no one's fault!), how much is this friendship worth to me, if I do offer a truth, will the other person totally reject it and make me feel dumb for doing it? All of these cross one's mind before actively trying to nakanaori. 


In 2015, I reconciled with 2 important people in my life, in different ways. I was very close to these 2 in different ways before something happened to split us apart, and it was very uncomfortable for a long time. A lot of confusion, a lot of regret about how it got to such an untenable situation in the first place, a little anger at the other person, but ultimately, the overwhelming wish that things would just go back to the way they were. It's important sometimes that the rift occurs for a friendship because it identifies certain problems in the relationship, or a misunderstanding, or something that's defective about the relationship. This flaw is sometimes insurmountable, which causes some friendships to dissolve. The Saion Uma (silver lining) to these rifts, though, is if you re-establish them, you realize that the relationship is stronger than the rift that happened, and in a classic "whatever kills you only makes you stronger" sort of way, even possibly strengthens the relationship. That's why Nakanaori is so important: the 2 options are to 1.) let a healthy relationship crumble and become nothing like it never happened, or 2.) re-establish an even stronger relationship that is even better than it was before the rift. 

I've been lucky enough that the people I associate with were open to the reconciliation, and when I made an effort on my end they also reciprocated. I think most people's situations are similar to mine: Friends naturally want to get along again, but just don't know when or how to do it. So next time I think the lesson is, if you're thinking about reconciling, go for it: it's worth it. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

What Qualifies as a Christmas movie?

Having just passed Christmas, I saw one of the most important debate topics that faces mankind in the modern age, surprisingly on Facebook for a question of such magnitude: "Does Die Hard qualify as a Christmas movie?"

I've seen Die Hard- good movie, got 92% on Tomatoes, relate-able hero, I've actually worked at Fox Tower (Nakamura Tower in the movie), so lot of good vibes. It's an action movie, no doubt. It also happens to take place on Christmas Eve, for which some have argued it's a Christmas movie. However, the movie works without the fact that it's Christmas, at no point does John McCain the narrator embrace the fact that it is Christmas. Although the terrorists do use the fact that it's Christmas Eve to initiate their plan thus making the date a significant plot point, Christmas is not an essential theme to the story no contribute to the heart of the narrative, that of John McCain kicking ass and saving hostages.

What does constitute a Christmas movie? Obvious ones include Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol (along with Scrooged, of the same story), How the Grinch stole Christmas, A Christmas Story (played on a loop on FX every year during Christmastime), and my personal favorite, Elf. All of these stories incorporate themes of Christmas and Santa and embrace the spirit of Christmas, whether it's a lost elf looking for his father leading choruses of Christmas cheer in New York City, whether it's a creature who hates Christmas only to find that he loves it, and so on. All of these stories would be lost if they did not happen during Christmas.

Conclusion: A Christmas movie must encompass a Christmas theme or incorporate the values or spirit of Christmas into one of its themes, not just use Christmas as  a plot device. Supporting evidence could be the use of sequels (as in Home Alone- where Home Alone 2 also dealt with the theme of befriending those who are alone on Christmas, etc.) Die Hard is therefore NOT a Christmas movie. (Its sequels all occur on different dates, indicating that Christmas was not an important date).

Unfortunately, Google completely debunks my point by listing "Die Hard" among the movies that pop up in Search Results when searching "Top Christmas movies of all time," so what do I know. Merry Christmas!

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan