Table Manners

Sharing food is common in Japan . Sometimes there are special chopsticks with the same purpose as a serving spoon. In this case, you should use these to transfer food from the shared plate to your own plate. If separate chopsticks are not provided, you should use the opposite end of our chopstick to get food from the shared plates.

Eating rice with chopsticks may well be one of the biggest challenges you have to face. It won't be as bad as you fear, though. It is considered acceptable to hold the rice bowl close to your mouth. Normally, the left hand is used to hold the bowl and the right is used for the chopsticks. It is not polite to bend over the table so just bring the bowl up closer to you. When your hosts serve you food, it is considered good manners to receive it with both hands.

Just like in many other countries, some behavior is simply not acceptable around the table. For example, do not blow your nose while at the dinner table. Table talk should not include toilets and other similar topics as some people might be sensitive to such. You might have heard tales of burping as acceptable in the Orient. In Japan , it is considered bad manners to do that! On the other hand, it is all right to slurp when eating noodles.

It is a good idea to clean your plate up as it is considered good manners to finish every last bit of your food. After the meal, rearrange your dishes to the original way they were before the start of the meal. You should also replace the chopsticks to where they were at before you started eating.

One more important thing - never stick your chopsticks onto a bowl of rice. This means that someone has died.