Food

Basics

Rice is a staple food in the Japanese diet and many families include it in each meal. The name of each meal also includes the word for "rice" in it. For an example, the word for "breakfast", "asagohan", literally means "morning rice." Another common side dish is called miso shiro, or fermented soy bean soup. The Japanese word for side dish is okazu.

A popular drink in Japan is green tea. It is usually used to end a meal and is almost always included in formal ceremonies. The Japanese even have a special code of etiquette for preparing and drinking the tea, although this is typically only followed in their tea ceremonies. The Japanese word for green tea is "ocha", meaning "great tea."

People in Japan typically eat three meals a day- "asagohan", or breakfast; "hirugohan", or lunch; and "bangogohan", or dinner. Various types of seafood, including seaweed, are also common. Mushrooms, noodles, bean, and ginger are also used quite a bit. Pickled ginger is often eaten raw to cleanse the palatte between courses. They also like to add miso (bean paste), sake, soy sauce, and wasabi for extra flavor.

Japanese food is eaten using hashi (chopsticks), forks, knives, and spoons. A traditional table setting has a bowl of rice on the left size, a bowl of miso soup on the right side, and the chopsticks placed in front of both bowls pointing to the left. All other dishes are placed behind these bowls.

Tea Etiquette

If you happen to be invited to a tea ceremony, then there are a few rules that you must follow to avoid making a bad impression on your host.

• Arrive on time.
• Change into slippers before entering the hosts house.
• Be sure to drink all of your tea, and eat any food that is given to you.
• Do not drink tea from the front side; turn the cup slightly.
• Do not smoke during the tea ceremony.
• Pay attention to all details and show them and your host much respect.
• Be sure to write your host a thank you note, known in Japan as korei, a few days after the ceremony.

Table Manners

• Always be sure to say itadakimasu before you begin eating. It's the equivalent of grace in some other countries.
• Also be sure to say gochisousama at the end of the meal.
• To eat rice from a bowl, pick up the bowl with one hand and use your chopsticks with the other. If the bowl contains soup, then it is considered proper to drink the soup directly from the bowl.
• You do need to pick up the bowl for other side dishes.
• If serving chopsticks are not available, then use the clean end of your chopsticks (the end that doesn't go in your mouth) to transfer food to your own plate.
• Sashimi (strips of raw fish) is eaten after being dipped in a mixture of wasabi and soy sauce.
• Nigirizushi is held between the thumb, index, and middle fingers and the topping side is dipped in the sauce so the rice doesn't fall apart.
• Never blow your nose at the table.
• It's considered polite to clean your plate, including those very last few grains of rice.
• Unlink other Asian countries, burping is considered bad manners.
• Stick to clean, wholesome conversation topics while eating.
• Never pour your own beverage. It's considered polite to serve each other.
• The proper word to use for a toast in Japan is "kampai." Do not use "chin chin" as in Japanese it refers to the male genitals.
• Do not pour soy sauce on white, cooked rice.
• Do not waste soya sauce.
• If you add wasabi to your soya sauce to create a sushi dipping sauce, be sure to add only a little as to not offend the chef.
• Sushi should be eaten in one bite so as to not destroy the artful presentation. You may use either your hands or chopsticks to eat the sushi.
• Slurping noodles is ok, as it shows that you are enjoying your meal.
• Hold your chopsticks towards their end, not in the middle or the front third.
• When you are not using your chopsticks, or have finished eating, lay them down in front of you with the tips to left.
• Do not stick chopsticks into your food, especially not into rice. This is only done at funerals with rice that is put onto the altar.
• Do not pass food directly from your set of chopsticks to another's. Again, this is a funeral tradition that involves the bones of a cremated body.
• Do not spear food with your chopsticks.
• Do not point with your chopsticks.
• Do not wave your chopsticks around in the air or play with them.
• Do not move plates or bowls around with your chopsticks.
• To separate a piece of food in two, exert controlled pressure on the chopsticks while moving them apart from each other in order to tear the food. This takes some practice. With larger pieces of food such as tempura, it is also acceptable to pick up the entire piece with your chopsticks, and take a bite.