Some of these sound just as made-up as a lot of Western dining "rules." Maybe someone more familiar with the culture can say whether or not these are true faux pas in an everyday ramen shop or similar.
A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
41–50 of 408 posts
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#42> To place one’s mouth against the side of a dish and push food in with the chopsticks. I've seen people eat noodles and broth (e.g., ramen) like that a million times? What am I missing? How do you properly eat noodles and broth?
That taboo is simply wrong in many contexts. Watch Tampopo after reading this and it can correct for a lot.
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#43The 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…
[dead]
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#44Phew, I'm glad "inserting them into your nostrils and braying like a walrus" isn't on the list.
waruburashi
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#45> To place one’s mouth against the side of a dish and push food in with the chopsticks. I've seen people eat noodles and broth (e.g., ramen) like that a million times? What am I missing? How do you properly eat noodles and broth?
Slurp the noodles and drink the broth?
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#46I lived in Japan for nearly 6 years and found that concern for faux pas such as these for hashi (chopsticks) are way way overblown. I used at least one thousand disposable pairs of chopsticks in Japan and never had the desire to smooth them -- they are higher quality than Panda Express offerings. I knew about this "taboo" prior to arrival and it was simply irrelevant. Avoid the obvious symbolic references to makura g…
Passing food by placing it directly on someone else's plate or bowl is fine. The taboo is specifically about two people holding onto the same thing at the same tine with chopsticks, the way cremated bone fragments are placed into the urn at kotsuage.
Other than that, I agree. It's kind of like trying to apply Emily Post's etiquette to TV dinners: many of these "rules" would be viewed as prissy by Japanese and some (eg. giving your miso soup a swirl with your chopsticks before drinking) are very, very commonly ignored.
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#47> こじ箸 Kojibashi (also known as ほじり箸 hojiribashi) > To use the chopsticks to pick something out from near the bottom of the dish. I think there must be some bits that are lost in translation for some of these. This makes it sound like you can't eat all of the food in a bowl with your chopsticks.
[deleted]
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#48> To place one’s mouth against the side of a dish and push food in with the chopsticks. I've seen people eat noodles and broth (e.g., ramen) like that a million times? What am I missing? How do you properly eat noodles and broth?
It's not a taboo, it's just not considered good manners in formal contexts.
But it's fast and efficient, which is why people do it anyway.
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, could be - that's kind of what I mean in terms of being lost in translation. It feels like there's missing information / context in quite a few of them. Edit: In fact I think you're completely right - "picking out" something near the bottom of the dish does suggest that.
Let me check but I think it refers to a shared dish; at an izakaiya you often order a bunch of shared food plates and then serve yourself from them. It is definitely rude to use chopsticks that you just put in your mouth to go rooting around for something in those. You are supposed to take from the top and ideally turn them around using the back end. Some people frown on using the back ends however as it may have bee…
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 touched one’s mouth do not touch the food.
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#50I lived in Japan for nearly 6 years and found that concern for faux pas such as these for hashi (chopsticks) are way way overblown. I used at least one thousand disposable pairs of chopsticks in Japan and never had the desire to smooth them -- they are higher quality than Panda Express offerings. I knew about this "taboo" prior to arrival and it was simply irrelevant. Avoid the obvious symbolic references to makura g…
The main one for me is not putting your chopsticks on top of the bowl rim or putting the chopsticks sticking up from the rice. Those are both intuitive natural actions for me. In the US I rarely see chopstick rests so I'm always wonderting what to do with them when I'm not using them.