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The Use of Chopsticks
 Chopsticks are used to eat most kinds of Japanese foods, with some exceptions. Knives and forks are used for Western food only. Spoons however, may be
used with certain Japanese dishes such as donburi or Japanese style curry rice. A Chinese style ceramic spoon is sometimes used to eat soups.
You will find two types of chopsticks in Japanese restaurants. In the Photo, the top one is rapped in a paper sleeve. Normally there is no different,
the bottom one is just of a lesser quality. these chopsticks are normally joined at the top. To separate them. Hold the chopstick by the slimmer part and
pull them apart.
How to Hold Chopsticks
Rest the end of the lower chopstick in the V of your thumb and forefinger. Support the chopstick with the little finger and the ring finger. Hold the
upper chopstick as if it were a pencil, held between your middle finger and index finger, and anchored with your thumb.
 Make sure the tips of the chopsticks are always even, and the same length - it is impossible to use the chopsticks effectively if the tip of one stick
protrudes beyond the other.
When picking up food, the lower chopstick should remain still - only the upper chopstick should pivot, with the thumb as axis.
Eating Etiquette
Use the provided chopstick rest to hold your chopsticks when not eating.
Moisten your chopsticks before starting to eat - this makes food handling easier.
Never stand your chopsticks down into a bowl of rice, like a dagger.
Don't wave your chopsticks about when talking.
Say "ita-daki-masu" before starting to eat, and "go-chi-so sama-deshita" when you finish eating. If the Japanese is hard to remember,
then say "Bon appetite" to start, and "Thank you very much" at the end.
Slurping is NOT considered impolite in Japan.
If possible, try not to blow your nose at the table.
Soy sauce is usually not poured over white cooked rice.
When drinking alcohol, the etiquette is to pour alcohol into one another's glasses - but not into one's own glass. So be aware if your companion's glass is empty,
and offer to fill it. If someone wants to fill your glass, you should pick up your glass and hold it while it is being filled.
If there are bowls of communal food, but no spoons, use the thick end of your chopsticks (the non-eating end) to help yourself from the communal bowl to your own
bowl. Rather than lowering your head to the food, lift small bowls up to just below your mouth for eating.Bad Manners
Mayoi-bashi: Mayoi means "dithering". It is bad manners to wave your chopsticks around aimlessly over the food, trying to decide what to take next.
Utsuri-bashi: Changing the food you have selected after you have touched the food.
Saguri-bashi: Looking for contents in a soup with chopsticks.
Sashi-bashi: Sashi means "inserting". It is bad manners to spear food with the points of the chopsticks as if they were a fork.
Yose-bashi: Yose means "drawing near". It is bad manners to pull the dishes towards you using the chopsticks. Always pick the dishes up in the hand.
Yoko-bashi: Keeping chopsticks together and using them like spoon.
Komi-bashi: Raking foods into one's already full mouth with chopsticks.
Neburi-bashi: Licking the ends of chopsticks.Other tips
♦ Don't eat with a broken or mismatched pair of chopsticks.
♦ Don't eat twice in a row from the same dish except your rice bowl.
♦ Don't stick chopsticks in your rice. This is commonly done at funerals, or as an offering which is placed on the alter at an ancestral shrine.
♦ Don't dig under food to get the best pieces.
♦ Don't eat food directly from the central plate, transfer it to your bowl first.
♦ Don't lick your chopsticks. - Don't stab your food with a chopstick.
♦ Don't set chopsticks on your bowl of dishes. Chopsticks should be placed on the table, chopstick holder or tray. When you are not using the chopsticks,
put them in front of you onto the table or a dish with the tip to the left.
♦ Do not give food from your chopsticks directly to somebody other's chopsticks. Only at Buddhist funerals where the bones of the burned body are given
in that way from person to person.
♦ Don' make noise with your chopsticks
Neither point with the chopsticks to something or somebody nor move them too much around in the air.
♦ Don't reach across another person with your chopsticks.
♦ Knife and fork are used for Western food only. Spoons are used for eating certain Japanese dishes, for example donburi or Japanese style curry rice. A Chinese
style ceramic spoon is sometimes used to eat soups.
♦ Making slurping noises while eating noodles is perfectly acceptable in Japan. There is no need to excuse yourself for making noises while eating.
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