喉から手が出る
(Nodo kara te ga deru; “A hand comes from the throat”)

Definition:

To want something very, very much; so much that you can hardly stand it. This imaginative metaphor compares desire to physical appetite, and pictures a hunger so powerful that a grasping hand comes out of the person’s throat to seize its object and pull it back. You know, like that weird second mouth inside the alien’s mouth in Alien. Except a hand, not a mouth. Um.

Look at that face! Doesn’t it just scream “want” to you?

…Long story short, this kotowaza expresses an almost-overwhelming want.

Breakdown:

喉 (nodo) is “throat” and から (kara) is a particle roughly equivalent to the English “from,” meaning the first two words of the phrase actually mark the location of the action. The actual subject of the sentence comes next: 手 (te, “hand”), followed by the subject-marker particle が (ga) and then the verb 出る (deru, “to come out”).

Notes:

Although the expression can technically function as a complete stand-alone sentence, it will generally be part of a longer one, followed by terms like ように (you ni, “as if”) or ほど (hodo, “to the degree/extent”). のど can also be written with the kanji 咽, although this is rarer – an alternate character that was only recently reintroduced to the standard set.

Example sentence:

「そのゲームを喉から手が出るほど欲しいから、バイトで稼がなきゃ」

(“Sono geemu wo nodo kara te ga deru hodo hoshii kara, baito de kaseganakya.”)

[“I want that game more than I can bear, so I have to get a part-time job and make some money.”]