Anyone who's been to Japan knows what a beautiful country it is, from its sakura blossoms that used to draw tourists by the millions every spring to the gentleness of the Japanese culture, the artful way the Japanese live their lives to the comprehensiveness of the Japanese language.
Every language has words that encapsulate its culture that other languages seemingly can't. Filipino, for example, has gigil and kilig and umay. In Japan, however, there is a word that captures all the mindless eating we've been doing during the quarantine. You know what we're talking about: the obsession with going to the grocery store, the constant opening of the refrigerator, the emptying out of carefully rationed pantries.
The word is "kuchisabishii", which, according to the Huffington Post means "lonely mouth" or "longing to have or put something in one's mouth" when translated.
It's a close cousin of stress eating. Kuchisabishii is the perfect word to explain your unexplainable snacking. We're all isolated right now so it makes sense. Your mouth is lonely and needs a friend and that friend, my friends, is food.
So the next time you find yourself mindlessly snacking, remember, your mouth is just a little bit sad.
H/T: Huffington Post
