Etiquette in Japan

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The Japanese chefs take great care in preparing food. They rather expect the diners who appreciate that fine food to also take great care. There are some polite habits to be observed with Japanese dining.

  • Drowning things in Soy sauce is not really the done thing. Even though the soy sauce is Japanese the local uses it sparingly. Sometimes they use it sparingly on sushi.
  • Ginger is not meant to be added to the sushi. Instead, you eat the ginger between the different flavours of sushi to cleanse the palette.
  • Slurping. Oddly for westerners, it is acceptable, almost expected, to slurp when eating ramen noodles and a few other dishes.
  • There is a ceremony for making match tea, or at least a proper method. Trying to just pour boiling water on match powder is a disaster.
  • Don’t drink sake with rice dishes. Sake is made from rice, and this is somehow inappropriate.
  • Don’t mix wasabi with soy, let alone add it to sushi. It destroys the delicate flavour.
  • Understand that sushi is vinegar rice; it does not just refer to the seaweed roll.
  • Never leave chopsticks standing in a bowl – this is something that looks like a Japanese funeral rite.
  • Sushi rice is means to be warm and soft, with the fish cold. In the west we are I the habit of eating it cold.
  • Always pour Sake for others, and have them pour it for you. This habit gives it a sense of occasion.
  • Some high quality Saki is served chilled, some is served hot.

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Enjoy a Japanese sushi meal for any cooperate event or family celebration. Sushi is popular with so many western diners, yet it still manages to be a little different, a little exotic, adding something to an occasion.