夫：だめだ。これ以上は進めない。
妻：じゃ、もどりましょうか。
夫：いや、それも無理だ。
妻：では、にっちもさっちもいかないんですか。
Nitchimo Satchimo Ikanai
(Yuki michi wo unten shiteite)
Otto: Dame da. Kore ijoo wa susumenai.
Tsuma: Ja, modorimashoo ka.
Otto: lya, sore mo muri da.
Tsuma: Dewa, nitchimo satchimo ikanai'n desu ka.
(While driving on a snow-covered road)
Husband: It's no use. We can't go any further.
Wife: What about turning around then?
Husband: No, we can't even do that.
Wife: Do you mean to say we're stranded here?
Since the drive to Chichibu through the mountains was supposed to just take two hours we'd "naively" started out without any chains on the tires. How were we to know the mountain roads would be covered with snow! And so once we'd gotten onto the slippery surfaces, we just couldn't get the car to move at all. Nitchimo satchimo ikanakunatta (We were stranded and in quite a fix). This week's expression is thus used when we are in a difficult situation and can be variously translated as "being in a fix/hole/tight corner/dilemma ; backed up against the wall; stranded; bogged down; caught between a rock and a hard place."
When I was a college student, I was once asked to babysit for an American family who lived in the neighborhood and though I hadn't been particularly interested, since the parents seemed to really need someone, I agreed. They had had two children-a three-year old girl and a baby of six months. And though they told me both children would go to bed at nine, all that happened then was that the baby started crying and the three-year old began shouting in English I couldn't understand? Watashi wa doo shite ii no ka wakarazu nitchimo satchimo ikanakunatte shimatta (I found myself in a fix because I didn't know what to do.) Changing the baby's diapers didn't help and it only cried louder when I tried to give it a bottle of milk. Nitchimo satchimo ikanai watashi wo mite (Looking at me caught in this dilemma), the three-year old finally managed to inform me I should pick the baby up and walk with it around the room. Indeed, after doing that for 30 minutes, the baby did go to sleep. When the couple came home a few minutes later to their sleeping baby they of course assumed everything had been fine. "Now that wasn't so hard, was it." they'd said. As for me, I haven't babysat since!
I got caught in a similar dilemma when I tried riding a horse in Hokkaido. At first the horse was wonderful as it walked obediently around the field.
When it suddenly stopped and began to eat some grass, however, my problems began. It just wouldn't get moving again. I kicked its belly, hit in with the whip. Nothing, just a nonchalant look at me out of the corner of its eye. Finally someone came over: "Nitchimo satchimo ikanai yoo desu ne" (You look like you're in quite a fix.) "Kicking the horse harder is about the only thing you can do" was their advice.
Three more examples: The last president of Korea was so persistently questioned by the people that nitchimo satchimo ikanakunatte kokyo ni nigeta (He found himself up against the wall and so ran off to his home town) ; One after another the names of people involved in the Recruit scandal have been made public in the Diet. And nitchimo satchimo ikanakunatta hito ga kaisha wo yameta (people caught in the middle of it all have been leaving their company jobs) ; When people who went so far as to go into debt to buy low-priced NTT stock, are nitchimo satchimo ikazu (caught between a rock and a hard place) they sell their stock even though doing so means losing money.
Oh that life was like the movies where nitchimo satchimo ikanakunatta toki kanarazu dare ka tasukete kureru no desu ga... (someone always shows up to help get the star out of whatever predicament they've managed to get themself into)...