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Behavior & Customs 2
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Table manners & eating customs
Do not start to eat until whoever is in charge
says "Itadakimasu," a set phrase used before eating meaning
"I gratefully receive ( this meal )," and everyone bows and
says the same. At the dojo the person to say Itadakimasu
will be either the Sensei or your dojo sempai; at a home,
your host or hostess.
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Using hashi (chopsticks)
• Never stick your chopsticks ( hashi ) points first into
the rice in your ricebowl and leave them there. This is only
done at Buddhist funerals!
• Never pass food from one person to another chopsticks to
chopsticks. This is also a funeral ritual. If you wish to
pass a piece of food from your chopsticks, then pass it on
to the plate or if necessary, the hand of the person you
wish to give the food to.
• Do not take food from a serving dish with your own
chopsticks ( they have been in your mouth! ). Only if what
you are taking from the serving dish is in separate pieces
so you don’ t touch any of the rest of the food with your
own chopsticks. If necessary, when there are not any serving
chopsticks on the plate you wish to take food from, you can
turn your own chopsticks around and use the ends which have
NOT been in your mouth to take food with. This is considered
good manners.
• Do not point with your chopsticks.
• If you are using "wari-bashi" ( disposable chopsticks ),
do not polish them by rubbing the two against each other
after taking them out of their package, even if you see some
Japanese people do this. It is not considered polite.
• Do not move dishes around with your chopsticks.
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Table manners in general
• Eat with your mouth closed, even if others at your table
do not!
• When eating noodles: in soup or any other way, it is
common to make a sucking sound. This is considered proper
manners, but only for eating NOODLES!
• Take only as much as you can eat. Try everything that is
offered to you, at least a taste. To leave food is a waste (
mottainai ) and is a big NO NO in Japan.
• Do not put soya sauce or other things on the rice in your
rice bowl. If rice is served with a sauce to go on it, then
it is put in a larger type type of bowl and is served with a
spoon. White rice should stay white when served in a rice
bowl.
• You should always finish your portion of rice in your
bowl, down to the last grain of rice. Otherwise it is
considered, can you guess it? "Mottainai!"
• When eating with people who are your
sempai, you should not finish eating before them. Time your
eating so that it fits with whom you are eating with. ( Awase! )
• When finishing the meal everyone bows and says "Gochisosamadeshita."
This means "thank you for the treat," and is always said at
the end of a meal.
• Important! In Japan, blowing your nose while people are
eating is to be avoided at all costs ( as is actually the
case in most other countries as well ). Unless you want to
see how quickly you can clear the room of Japanese people,
leave the room if you have to blow your nose.
• Do not burp at the table! Somehow some people have come to
think that this is an oriental custom. It is not!
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