The article does a good job calling out the more serious offenses, although I’d personally argue that nigiribashi is just as bad as the other two. Most Japanese people would probably react with a bit of shock to those. That said, chopstick etiquette is definitely evolving. Something like chobujubashi isn’t enforced as strictly anymore, especially with more awareness around left-handed users. Kaeshibashi, on the other…
That one puzzled me, probably makes sense if there are "serving chopsticks":
"""
Jikabashi
To use one’s own chopsticks instead of serving chopsticks to take food from a large serving dish.
When it comes to manners, I'd say seeing enough people fail to meet a standard means it's not a standard, at least.
No, that's argumentum ad populum. Mind you, I'm not saying that standards must be followed. I am just saying the same thing I tell my kids: - the standards are there, wishing they didn't exist doesn't invalidate them - the reason rules and standards came to existence might or might not be applicable to our current context, but some people will expect you to follow them regardless. - If a rule or standard seems silly…
"Appeals to public opinion are valid in situations where consensus is the determining factor for the validity of a statement, such as linguistic usage and definitions of words."
I go to your house to have food. You give me a fork and knife. I go to your kitchen to wash the fork and knife for good measure.
You come to my house to have food. I serve the food on obviously unclean dishes. Is that not rude as well? Do you just use the obviously dirty, nasty, used dishes out of not wanting to appear rude? Do I just use chopsticks that will put splinters in my mouth just to not appear rude?
In your metaphor the equivalent would be that you see that the chopsticks have splinters and are cleaning it
But everyone I met who does splinter cleanup does it _every time_ even without a cursory inspection. So the metaphor is… maybe more apt that you are cleaning a plate despite not seeing whether it’s clean or not first
I’m not even sure what the technical etiquite is. As a right handed American it just seems more natural to have my knife in my right hand but if I’m just using a fork I tend to switch that to my right hand. Didn’t even think about it until right now.
I've always just done the cutting at the beginning of the meal then set the knife to the side. All of the etiquette patterns I've heard about seem wrong to me compared to just cut first and then put the knife down.
Some people do that but it’s probably not the norm in general.
In English you can use 'sir' as an insult, which is quite creative.
It's possible in Polish to use "pan" in vocative "panie" form with strong vocal emphasis not followed by name or last name, to give it more rude sounding - but it won't be an insult.
There's nothing more humiliating than a Warsaw taxi driver who looks at you as you try to work out how to operate the door handle and says "Panie!" with a left-bank accent.
Its always extremely funny reading wikipedia articles about a countries customs. For the UK: >Bread is always served and can be placed on the table cloth itself This is extremely rare, to the point where I can't remember the last time I saw it. Is bread really.. always served? > In the United Kingdom, the fork tines face upward while sitting on the table. Tines down isn't uncommon in the UK either >if a knife is not…
> >if a knife is not needed – such as when eating pasta – the fork can be held in the right hand > I mean it can be, but its fairly uncommon So the norm is that if you're eating one-handed, you use your non-dominant hand? That seems really counterintuitive to me; is it because you're so used to having the fork in the non-dominant hand that it feels awkward the other way? Which hand do you use when eating with a spoon…
Spoons always go in the right hand (eg fork and spoon), but yes I'd say people usually use the fork in the non dominant hand. Fork in the right hand is slightly 'uncouth', possibly due to its american associations
There are only 2 that really matter, those marked with "serious" because they remind of funeral rites (passing food from chopsticks to chopsticks or sticking them in rice).
Japanese people will tell you about those because they really don't like seeing people do it.
> 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.
I've always thought I'd like to visit Japan someday, but have always been worried about the cultural significance and omnipresence of white rice. Like, I can see how not eating rice would seem boorish (like you only want to eat the more expensive proteins, don't understand the purpose of a palate cleanser, etc), but living with type 1 diabetes I have not eaten white rice in literal years. Every single time I do, I regret it -- it's a complete nightmare to control your blood sugar after, sometimes for the entire rest of the day. I've even wondered if I could find a way to avoid being impolite by deliberately under eating the whole time if I were to visit, to make it clear I'm not just taking the good stuff and leaving the rice out of greed.
Interesting. Some of these are big deals (particularly the ones mentioned as important) but others I have seen Japanese people in Tokyo do quite consistently. Soroebashi - not on the table, but I've seen chopsticks aligned by pushing them against the plate hundreds of time. I've also seen them used to stir miso soup, etc. plenty. Others I don't know that I would have much of an inclination to do and haven't seen but…
I am reminded of the passage in Umberto Eco's _Foucault's Pendulum_ where they reconstruct a particularly wild weekend for a Templar based on the rule of the Templars and the idea that a rule exists because it's something people do.