Others I don't know that I would have much of an inclination to do and haven't seen but am not sure if it's because it really is a faux pas or just because no one else really tends to do it either.

The waiter (who had a bit of a sense of humor) brought me exactly ONE chopstick. I laughed and repeated 請給我另一個筷子 (Please give me another chopstick) and he brought out another one.

Of course later my friend told me that I should have used 雙 to indicate I wanted a "pair" of chopsticks.

That said, chopstick etiquette is definitely evolving. Something like chobujubashi isn’t enforced as strictly anymore, especially with more awareness around left-handed users. Kaeshibashi, on the other hand, is becoming more common, and in some social circles, not doing it can actually come across as rude.

Also I'm not sure how you're supposed to eat e.g. fried rice without yokobashi or kakibashi.

Also! I thought kaeshibashi was a good thing. I've definitely seen people do that at parties.

(Not gonna direct quote because the damn site doesn't allow copy-pasting so they don't get a link, paraphrased):

Kirai-bashi would be literally translated to "dislike-chopsticks" and means bad chopstick table-manners. Hashi is chopsticks and bashi is the voiced form of it.

So the bashi suffix/word on the end of all of these just means chopsticks it seems.

Related to eating, one pro-tip I got from a local is that when you're ready to close your tab or get your check at a bar or restaurant, you can make a small X with your index fingers.

Really useful in a busy bar!

> To use the chopsticks to pick something out from near the bottom of the dish.

I think there must be some bits that are lost in translation for some of these. This makes it sound like you can't eat all of the food in a bowl with your chopsticks.

That made me chuckle

I have always been a little embarrassed by my own use of chopsticks. When I was three or four years old a waitress in a Chinese restaurant helped me figure out a way to hold them that worked for me. Long story short, I am in my 70s and I have very effectively been getting food efficiently into my mouth with chopsticks my whole life - with horrible style.

Huh, this is something that I did consistently, believing it to be good etiquette.

  こすり箸 Kosuribashi:
 To rub waribashi (disposable chopsticks) together to remove splinters.

edit: Gemini makes great infographics https://imgur.com/a/V2D9VlM

How rude is it? When the food is not well prepared for chopsticks it’s really useful. But I do see why it’s rude, because it does imply that the food is not quite right. The Chinese restaurants in my country seem to have a problem making properly sticky rice.

!!! (Serious) To stand chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice. This is taboo, as it is the way rice is presented as a Buddhist funeral offering.

Does it mean without food?

They piece through the ashes of a cremation and pass them between each other?

I know the modern style of conveyor belt cremation is a bit impersonal.

It’ll take me a while to process this.

> To keep putting the chopsticks into the same side dishes. It is proper etiquette to first eat rice, move on to eat from a side dish, eat rice again, and then eat from a different side dish.

So keto itself is a faux pas?

> 返し箸 Kaeshibashi (also known as 逆さ箸 sakasabashi)

> To turn the chopsticks around when serving food so that the tips of the chopsticks that have touched one’s mouth do not touch the food.

Ewww. I’d rather be rude than share germs.

1. > 返し箸 Kaeshibashi (also known as 逆さ箸 sakasabashi)

> To turn the chopsticks around when serving food so that the tips of the chopsticks that have touched one’s mouth do not touch the food.

Does this mean it is preferable to use the tips that may have touched mouth to then serve more food? Or is this considered fine because it's also taboo to touch the tips to your mouth? (which only a BARBARIAN would do!)

2. > こすり箸 Kosuribashi

> To rub waribashi (disposable chopsticks) together to remove splinters.

Just proceed to eat some splinters, then? What is the good etiquette way to handle low quality el-cheapo chopsticks?

---

I have been guilty of the above as well as:

Chigiribashi - Hold one chopstick in each hand and use them like a knife and fork to tear or cut food into smaller pieces.

Soroebashi - Hold chopsticks together and tap them on a dish or the top of the table to align the tips.

Namidabashi - Allow sauce or soup to drip from the tips of the chopsticks when eating. Namida means “tears.”

Nigiribashi - Grip both chopsticks in a fist.

Neburibashi - Lick the chopsticks.

Hashibashi - Place the chopsticks like a bridge across the top of a dish to show one is finished. Chopsticks should be placed on the hashioki (chopstick rest).

Furibashi - Shake off soup, sauce, or small bits of food from the tips of the chopsticks.

Mogibashi - Bite off and eat grains of rice that are stuck to the chopsticks.

Yokobashi - Line the chopsticks up together and use them like a spoon to scoop up food.

.. growing up my mom used to say, "What are you, raised by wolves!?" .. apparently, yes!

Most of these seem related to health/sanitary practices/being considerate more than anything. Just avoiding contaminating what others are going to eat with your own utensils is an easy way to describe several of them.

> To take the tips of the chopsticks in one’s mouth.

Sometimes I'm having a hard time avoiding that. Apparently I need more practice.

I spent months learning how to use them properly in secret and finally deployed my skills when I thought I was pretty good. She didn’t notice. I then realized she almost always used a fork. In high school and college their meals were always served hastily and the students always brought a fork or spoon. they would eat standing up and had maybe five minutes to get the job done. No time for chopsticks.

When her parents came out to visit us after we got married I frantically asked her advice about good chopstick etiquette. I very much did not wish to cause her to lose face. She didn’t give a flying fuck. I honestly think I married one of the freest spirits in Asia, which is not necessarily a compliment.

She said I was doing fine and literally refused to give me any feedback at all, incorrectly claiming she wasn’t even that good. In fact, I think she only started to resume using chopsticks because I ended up finding them useful and now far prefer them to silverware.

I ended up having to learn most of the customs by watching people in restaurants. Just learning how to set them down right took additional months because I noticed far too late that they set their chopsticks down in a sort of V shape which is much harder than one might expect. Also, I am left-handed, but taught myself to do it right handed on the theory of that would also help me not lose face in front of the in-laws. It turns out they are also highly unconventional and probably didn’t care about my chopstick use one way or the other.

When we had kids, I would learn that Asian children who don’t learn to use chopsticks represent another way to lose face. It results in titanic power struggles within the family and makes everyone miserable. It’s a little like forcing kids here in the USA to eat their vegetables. By this time I had learned of her disinterest, so neither of us bothered to teach them. All of our children naturally picked it up with no apparent effort, including one who is very severely developmentally disabled.

I've seen people eat noodles and broth (e.g., ramen) like that a million times? What am I missing? How do you properly eat noodles and broth?

    - several things that are often quoted as good etiquette but nobody follows (elbows off the table, correct order of dishes)
    - lots of things that are customary but nobody cares if you don't follow it (napkin on lap, placement of silverware)
    - only a few things that actually matter and would be considered rude by normal people (don't touch shared food with used silverware, keep your mouth closed while chewing)

Also wondering how many of these apply in a Chinese setting or any other chopstick culture. Are there a different set of taboos?

> To rub waribashi (disposable chopsticks) together to remove splinters.

Stopped reading there. If you're handing me crappy chopsticks to eat with I am rubbing them together first.

hold the chopstick however you like. so long as you don’t drop things unintentionally it’s fine.

I copy + pasted the whole article (minus the few included images) and added this prompt in Gemini 3 Pro:

> Take each of the following and add an image representing the act being described. The image should be very basic. Think of signs in buildings - exit signs, bathroom door signs, no smoking signs, etc. That style of simplicity. Just simple, flat, elegant vector graphic lines for the chopsticks, hands, bowls, etc.

Google Gemini output: https://gemini.google.com/share/11df1bc53e3d

I think this is pretty dang good for a one-shot run. I also ran this through Claude Opus 4.6 Extended (doesn't generate images directly, so it made an HTML page and some vector icons). Not as good as Gemini IMO. See here if curious: https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/8b6589b3-4da4-4fd5-b862-c...

Anyone able to do this better with a different prompt or model (or both)?