5 Japanese Table Manners
As I had a few requests for a blog about Japanese table manners, today I am introducing 5 basic Japanese table manners (besides chopstick rules) that we all are taught while growing up. I personally don’t think you should worry so much, and feel more comfortable and enjoy yourself instead. This kind of blogs are a lot easier for me to write, but please don’t think I am a manner lady or something. If I take my typical 14 year old American son to Japan, I would be beyond embarressed. So we are not going there any time soon.
- Finish All the Food on the Plate -
We are taught to finish everything on our plate. There is always one child in your classroom who is a slow and picky eater. Even little children at school are not allowed to toss the food, so those poor children end up still eating during recess after the lunchtime, and sometimes cleaning time after recess. The sauteed carrots they served once a month at school had a strange butter taste, and I still remember I just didn’t even want to smell it. I often found a way to toss them, though. At home I remember my mom used to cook pork cutlets once in a while, but they were always kind of dry and hard, basically they were not yummy. She let me leave the table one night, but I saw my leftover pork cutlets on my breakfast plate in the following morning. They were cut to mouthful sizes to eat with chopsticks. I don’t remember the details but I don’t think I could finish before it was time to go to schoo, and I saw the same cutlets again on my dinner plate that night. They also say there are 3 gods in one grain of rice that is why we can’t even toss 1 grain of rice. I had trouble understanding this theory when I was little, thinking, ‘well, how many gods are there in the world, then? And why are we eating gods?’.
We have a long history of frequent famine. Japan is an island surrounded by oceans with 70% of the land being inhabitable mountains, on top of earthquakes, typhoons and volcano eraptions occurring more often than we wish. Japanese people always had trouble securing enough food for everyone, this is how the idea of “Mottainai” which means something like ‘don’t waste anything’ or ‘use everything with care’ grew deeply into our culture. (read my blog ‘Mottainai” Life Style - link below)
https://www.yokobeverlyhills.com/blog/6etnm8n0gm3yhuhevtkgjzgqftb2lo-uoqhz
- When to Slurp and Not to Slup -
Japan is famous for slurping noodles and many people believe we slurp everything we eat, but that is far from the truth. We slurp food with liquid, which are ramen, udon, miso soup and hot tea. Slurping pasta is disgusting, though old people often ask for chopsticks at an Italian restaurant to eat pasta. (lol) The reason why we slurp is to eat quickly when the food is in its best condition. Noodles get soggy, and tea gets cold. It is nothing to do with showing gratitude. If you don’t want to slurp, you don’t need to slurp at all. Any other sounds rather than slurping are considered bad manners. For example, a sound of your chopsticks tapping your plate, chewing, Oh, and blowing your nose is definately a No, No, not only at the table but also in any occassion.
- Holding a Bowl -
Hold a bowl only when you eat the food from it. Only the bowls that are small enough to be able to hold with one hand, therefore a rice and a miso soup bowls should be held but not a ramen or an udon bowls. The reason for this is because you should keep sitting up properly while eating, not lowering your head to the food. This posture is called ‘inu gui (dog / eat - eating like a dog) and considered as a vulgar manner.
- Keeping Your Elbows Off the Table / Other Hand on the Table -
While eating, you must keep both of your hands on the table, but keep your elbows off the table. Your posture needs to look elegant. By the way a theory of the reason why your other hand needs to be on the table was to show that you were not hiding anything (like a weapon) from the person or people you were eating with in the past.
- Little Paryer Before and After the Meal -
You can forget all the above but this one. This is the most important table manner of all.
Before you eat, you say ‘Itadakimasu’, which has a deep meaning; ‘ I am going to receive the lives of animals and plants for my own life.’, and to express your understanding and appreciation of how much were sacrificed to make the meal, and also your gratitude to farmers who made the food, to the cook who made the meal and whoever were involved in between in the process. Japanese people hold their hands (picture above) to show respect and to put their thoughts and feelings into the form. They use the same gesture when they pray to their god or ancestor. However some people don’t join their hands and only say the word, which is perfectly fine, just less formal. After the meal, we say “Gochisosama’ which means “Thank you very much for this meal, it was delicious” .
Hope you enjoyed this blog. Try tonight during your dinner!
