Discussion
A Japanese Glossary of Chopsticks Faux Pas
mjamesaustin: I was shocked to find it's a faux pas to rub disposable chopsticks to remove potential splinters. I was taught this is what you're supposed to do with disposable chopsticks.
cthalupa: 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 am not sure if it's because it really is a faux pas or just because no one else really tends to do it either.
wahnfrieden: it's like western etiquette: upper class, fine dining traditional practices are not what you'll see everyday even among polite society. the spectrum of behaviors will also depend on one's company.
jeffbee: Yeah? How are you supposed to line up the sticks? And stir the soup? I think the "Mawashibashi" faux pas is to whip the soup like a madman, or to aimlessly swish it, and the translated listicle doesn't convey that.
emursebrian: Most of these are common sense. As a tourist foreigner, you also aren't expected to know all the customs but it's appreciated when you try. The one about which direction to NOT point the chopsticks in was new to me. If you just watch what other people are doing, then try to do the same thing, you're probably on the right track.Related to eating, one pro-tip I got from a local is that when you're ready to close your tab or get your check at a bar or restaurant, you can make a small X with your index fingers.Really useful in a busy bar!
0x3f: > Most of these are common sense.A lot of them are not common sense at all. Even the 'serious' ones require cultural knowledge to understand. Only a subset of the rest would be un-ideal across cultures, which is what I would use to measure 'common sense'.It's like how in some asian cultures it's rude to bring the bowl closer to you by lifting it off the table, and in others it's the opposite. And of course there's some just-so story for why, that seems to make sense if you don't know about the opposing just-so story.Things like that aren't what I'd call common sense.
morkalork: A bunch of the common sense ones, like not pointing at someone with your ustensiles, are the same in western etiquette.
morkalork: Namidabashi and Furibashi seem like a contradiction
frereubu: > 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.
FartyMcFarter: Maybe it means that you're digging up food that is under other food?
WorldPeas: right? What's the right way? I don't want splinters on the most sensitive surface in my body..
cthalupa: The splinters come from where they break apart and there's not really any reason to have that part of the chopsticks touching your skin.But you move away from break apart disposable chopsticks in Japan long before you get to high etiquette dining. In my experience, basically every restaurant in Japan that isn't of, like, fast food tier, provides actual chopsticks instead of disposable ones.
dibujaleojos: Holy cow! I thought there was going to be a list of 8 of them... There's like 40!
Fricken: And I thought the Inuit had a lot of words for snow.I wonder how many of these words a typical Japanese person can list off the top of their head.
SpecialistK: > The one about which direction to NOT point the chopsticks in was new to me.I suspect it mostly affects left handed people.
mmooss: > 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?
frereubu: I've seen those too. I was going to say that I've seen people put the bowl to their mouth and shovel food in with chopsticks, but now that I come to think about it that might well actually be from the series Tokyo Diner and Takeshi Kitano films, and may be deliberately uncouth characterisations...
AftHurrahWinch: Phew, I'm glad "inserting them into your nostrils and braying like a walrus" isn't on the list.
frereubu: 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.
univerio: I think just written in an ambiguous way: "dish" here refers to the food contained in the vessel and not the vessel itself.
ngruhn: waruburashi
waffletower: That taboo is simply wrong in many contexts. Watch Tampopo after reading this and it can correct for a lot.
perdomon: 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.
hatthew: I'm curious for a native's opinion on how important these are. The etiquette I was taught growing up in the US is a mix of: - several things that are often quoted as good etiquette but nobody follows (elbows off the table, correct order of dishes) - lots of things that are customary but nobody cares if you don't follow it (napkin on lap, placement of silverware) - only a few things that actually matter and would be considered rude by normal people (don't touch shared food with used silverware, keep your mouth closed while chewing) Of these several dozen "rules" for chopsticks, how many actually fall into the last category of things that actually matter?
wagwang: Always interesting to see the analogs of island vs continental culture when comparing UK <-> America and Japan <-> China. Seems like islanders, due to their reliance on trade, naturally get specialized and autistic about their craft so they can have a comparative advantage, and their obsessions carry over into stuffy traditional practices.
0x3f: I counter with the American swap-the-fork-hand-after-you-cut thing. Diabolical.
dgxyz: That’s just mental. Does my head in when I see it.
mlhpdx: American raised by a Brit here, and I was literally just doing this during lunch out. I consider the upside down fork just plain torture.
waffletower: I 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 gohan (bowl of rice offering to the deceased) at the end of your meal and you are probably golden. If you have kids in Japan, gaijin passing food with chopsticks to their children in a restaurant is going to be seen in a neutral or even sympathetic light. The Japanese may silently judge but they rarely sneer or harass. If you spend a lot of time with modern Japanese families you might be surprised to discover Western stereotypes of Japanese taboos are sometimes outdated and even incorrect. They are very aware that foreigners will not understand all of their customs, and many of those customs have decreasing importance as their culture evolves.
dekhn: 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.
themaninthedark: 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 been touched by your hand...
irishcoffee: 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.
mijoharas: For anyone else curious after reading "-bashi" 40 times:(Not gonna direct quote because the damn site doesn't allow copy-pasting so they don't get a link, paraphrased):Kirai-bashi would be literally translated to "dislike-chopsticks" and means bad chopstick table-manners. Hashi is chopsticks and bashi is the voiced form of it.So the bashi suffix/word on the end of all of these just means chopsticks it seems.
raised_by_foxes: It's rude if it's a nice establishment, as it conveys your belief that the chopsticks are of low quality. So that's what you're signaling with that. If everyone already knows they are cheap (e.g. disposable), then have at it.
triceratops: If a nice establishment has splintery chopsticks maybe they should look in the mirror.
sudo_cowsay: sacrilegious lol
twodave: Glad to know I haven’t picked up any seriously bad habits, but how the heck do you keep the chopsticks aligned without tapping them somewhere?Most of these seem related to health/sanitary practices/being considerate more than anything. Just avoiding contaminating what others are going to eat with your own utensils is an easy way to describe several of them.
koolba: > 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 touched one’s mouth do not touch the food.Ewww. I’d rather be rude than share germs.
tmathmeyer: >> 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.> Ewww. I’d rather be rude than share germs.I think this means you should use something other than your chopsticks to share food, and not just assume that "the back of my chopsticks are germ-free, I'll use that"
unsignedint: 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 hand, is becoming more common, and in some social circles, not doing it can actually come across as rude.
helterskelter: > Kaeshibashi, on the other hand, is becoming more common, and in some social circles, not doing it can actually come across as rude.I was always under the impression this was the polite thing to do.
To turn the chopsticks around when serving food so that the tips of the chopsticks that have touched
bigwheels: Fascinating culture and raises numerous questions arising from my subsequent confusion:1. > 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.Does this mean it is preferable to use the tips that may have touched mouth to then serve more food? Or is this considered fine because it's also taboo to touch the tips to your mouth? (which only a BARBARIAN would do!)2. > こすり箸 Kosuribashi> To rub waribashi (disposable chopsticks) together to remove splinters.Just proceed to eat some splinters, then? What is the good etiquette way to handle low quality el-cheapo chopsticks?
0x3f: > Just proceed to eat some splinters, then? What is the good etiquette way to handle low quality el-cheapo chopsticks?Well first of all the chopsticks are joined at the non-eating end, typically. So the splinters would be bothering your fingers more than anything.It's rude because it insults the host, in a way. Anywhere that would care about you doing it should not be giving you the cheap chopsticks in the first place. If you're in a place that gives you them, they probably don't care about you doing it.
wenc: [delayed]
reaperducer: The disposable wooden chopsticks in Japan don’t splinterIf that was always true, there wouldn't be a word for it.I've been given some pretty gnarly chopsticks at roadside places outside the main metropolitan areas.
sudo_cowsay: There are steel chopsticks (though not really common <-- only in Korea).
