(Japanese) Chopstick Manners

    Hello! How are you doing, everyone? Are you enjoying the winter vacation? As for me, I am working a part-time job.

    Today, I will write about Japanese chopstick manners. I hope it will help you explain chopstick manners to foreigners. Before we get to the main topic, I must say this: I am not from Hiroshima, so my manners might differ from yours.

    First of all, I will tell you how you use chopsticks. To use chopsticks properly, you hold a chopstick just like the way you hold a pen, but in the upper position, and then you slide another chopstick through the circle with your thumb and forefinger into space between the middle finger and ring finger. You shouldn't move the later chopstick,  just the former. Then you can cut things, pick them up and loosen them.

    There are things you must not do. 

1. Stabbing food.
   I think this is one of the most common mistakes among foreigners. Don't stab food with chopsticks. Children sometimes do this.
2. Drawing bowls or plates with chopsticks.
   This is not allowed, and you might spill the content.
3. Licking chopsticks.
   This is very childish and disgusting.
4. Pointing someone with chopsticks.
   Never do this. This is really rude and sometimes even offensive.
5. Take care that chopsticks aren't drippy.
   This rule is not as important for foreigners as others, but you still have to take care.
6. Planting chopsticks in food, especially rice
   Japanese associate it with funeral services.
7. Always eat from the top.
   Don't stir the bowl to find better stuff.
8. Don't deliver pieces of food from someone's chopsticks to another's chopsticks.
   This also reminds the Japanese of funeral services.

    Thank you for reading my article about how to hold chopsticks and bad manners to the end. I hope this will help you explain chopsticks manners to foreign people or understand Japanese culture if you are a foreigner.