h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>>Do not pick up the food with the ends of the chopsticks that will touch your mouth.<<



This makes it sound like it's actually impossible to get the food to your mouth

Nice article by the way

I also would like to know this.

I also had some interesting thoughts on the ladies wrapping their legs neatly behind themselves when eating but I thought I'd best not mention that for the sake of decenct

Can you still encounter those little mechanical tea-serving dolls?

I read that you pick up food items from communal dishes with one end of the chopsticks & eat with the other. Last year, when I had a fantastic holiday in Japan, mostly either there were serving implements to transfer food to your own dish, or we had individual dishes anyway.

Ok... so maybe that sentence needs to be extended with "from communal dishes". That makes perfect sense and doesn't seem like some really quirky Japanese thing at all.

>>Do not pick up the food with the ends of the chopsticks that will touch your mouth.
>>This makes it sound like it's actually impossible to get the food to your mouth erm


Hello there.
It's true that's bit difficult to pick up the food with teh ends of chopsticks, but it depends on each people's haibt. some use very lower place of chopsticks, the others can pick up foods with very ends of chopsticks
We said (especially the old people) that the farther place of the chopsticks you use, the less your relationsip with your parents are/ or the more you live far away from your parents.

Not only us, Jpanese, but also Chinese and Korean use chopsticks, but all our habbits/usage of chopsticks are differnt, that's very interesting for me (even Japanese I am)
If you use computer and come here through internet, please go this site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopsticks
You will enjoy readint this article, too

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About picking up food item..
It depends what dishes we have. or it depends where you have dishes..
For example, if you stay at Japanese inn, you may be served one tab;e for meal, we call it "O"Zen(or Zen)(meaning the a set of table for one people) (not ) that put all food you will be able to eat by yourself like
http://www.pref.iwate.jp/~hp5001/hokenfukushi/site1/gyouji/butuji1.jpg
At home, you may "share" Japanese picklies with your family and you may pick those pickles to your own small plate from pickles' dishes(?) (we put another rather longer chopsticks to use and you won't use your own chopstick when you pick them up)
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/5602/assortimenttsukemono9xb.jpg
"Tenpra" dishes could be the same.
Of course, these are up to your family.
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Not only women, but also men fold their legs under theirself when they sit on Tatami or women also sit cross-regged on the floor
But on the very formal occasion like formal tea ceremony, buddihst funeral anniversary ceremony, we sit fold-legged on the floor.
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We never go into our house with shoes. You have to take off your shoes on the floor.
As far as sllipers are concerned, we didn't use them before we imported them from the western countries, I think.
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Our life style has westernised a lot so our old life style has been disappeared. Young people know about our traditional life style, customs less than us, or old people.
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Although it seems that our faces, customs are similar to Chinese or Korean ones, (to you, western people), it's not true. Our customs, costumes, or way of thinkings are very different from them.
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I hope this will help you to enjoy this article
All the best