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A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)

nippon.com

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Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)

#111

Post by laughing_man »

jwrallie wrote: post #99
koolba wrote: post #64

> 移り箸 Utsuribashi (also known as 渡り箸 wataribashi) > To keep putting the chopsticks into the same side dishes. It is proper etiquette to first eat rice, move on to eat from a side dish, eat rice again, and then eat from a different side dish. So keto itself is a faux pas? > 返し箸 Kaeshibashi (also known as 逆さ箸 sakasabashi) > To turn the chopsticks around when serving food so that the tips of the chopsticks that have tou…

You will quickly learn the first one because if you keep eating the delicious side dishes you will be only left with large amounts of bland rice to eat last.

It would be pretty irritating if someone in your dinner party ate the lion's share of the more flavorful food and left the rice for everyone else.

Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)

#112

Post by cmcaleer »

cthalupa wrote: post #106
cmcaleer wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you were to do an Osaka version of this, the list would be limited to maybe 4 of these (licking, chopsticks upright in rice, passing between chopsticks, and pointing esp. toward a senior would be taboo). Whereas when I had a date with a girl from Kyoto, one of the first things that happened when we went to eat was she had to stop me from picking up my chopsticks impolitely and show me the proper way of doi…

It's always wild to me when I hear about how different the culture is between Osaka and Kyoto when they're so close.

I remember being blown away when I was in a Kyoto Familymart after a few months of living in Osaka after they handed me my fried chicken very delicately with both hands like it was a business card!

I guess that’s the cultural divide that occurs when one community is fishing and trading while the other does, like, competitive perfumed calligraphy or whatever.

Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)

#113

Post by gavmor »

kibwen wrote: post #67
0x3f wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I counter with the American swap-the-fork-hand-after-you-cut thing. Diabolical.

As an American, I don't think I have ever seen anyone do this.

Really? You hold the fork with your dominant hand, and cut with your non-dominant hand?

Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)

#114

Post by gnabgib »

kibwen wrote: post #67
0x3f wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I counter with the American swap-the-fork-hand-after-you-cut thing. Diabolical.

As an American, I don't think I have ever seen anyone do this.

It's like you've never met someone who's left handed

Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)

#115

Post by vpribish »

cmcaleer wrote: post #112
cthalupa wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always wild to me when I hear about how different the culture is between Osaka and Kyoto when they're so close.

I remember being blown away when I was in a Kyoto Familymart after a few months of living in Osaka after they handed me my fried chicken very delicately with both hands like it was a business card! I guess that’s the cultural divide that occurs when one community is fishing and trading while the other does, like, competitive perfumed calligraphy or whatever.

competitive perfumed calligraphic etiquette -- of your grandfathers!

Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)

#117

Post by shermantanktop »

maxerickson wrote: post #110
pndy wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's equally complex dining and utensils etiquette in Western culture but it's largely omitted (or even unknown) on daily basis.

That's not really a coherent statement. If people don't even know it, it's not part of the culture.

Who are the “people” that you are referring to?

This makes total sense to me. There is no monolithic “culture”— there are multiple related cultures, differing little in essence but differing greatly in the details. And each individual is usually only partially ignorant anyway.

Culture changes, too, and asymmetrically. So the “done thing” may be done be very few anymore.

Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)

#118

Post by sneak »

e-dant wrote: post #91

Some of these I’ve been told are taboos in the opposite way. For example, the one about serving or taking food from the opposite end of the chopsticks, I was told, is polite. But here they say it is taboo. Maybe they meant it’s taboo not to do that?

Yes, it’s weirdly ambiguous. But even that is performative, as you’re still using an unsanitary part - the part that has touched your hand vs the part that has touched your lips.

Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)

#119

Post by sneak »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #76
koolba wrote: post #64

> 移り箸 Utsuribashi (also known as 渡り箸 wataribashi) > To keep putting the chopsticks into the same side dishes. It is proper etiquette to first eat rice, move on to eat from a side dish, eat rice again, and then eat from a different side dish. So keto itself is a faux pas? > 返し箸 Kaeshibashi (also known as 逆さ箸 sakasabashi) > To turn the chopsticks around when serving food so that the tips of the chopsticks that have tou…

Keto diet doesn’t exist in Japanese cuisine. If you’re going to a keto friendly place, it’s something trendy and contemporary so this traditional advice obviously doesn’t apply. It is not a faux-pas to eat non traditional / non Japanese cuisine.

Keto diet doesn’t exist in western cuisine either. It’s a niche thing in both places, and both places have specific single dishes without carbs.
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