Things you need to know when eating Japanese food

It can be confusing or may be even hard to eat Japanese food. You see people holding up their dishes but is that ok? Is there a spoon? Many questions pop into your head.
Let me answer all those questions.

・Holding up dishes
It is ok to hold up a dish if it isn’t so large. Try not to leave the dish on the table and bring your mouth close to the dish when eating.

・Drink your soup
For the same reason as the dishes, we also hold soup cups and put your mouth on the cups when drinking. When eating something inside the soup, have your soup in one hand and eat with your chopsticks. Japanese people actually eat Ochazuke (tea poured over rice) with chopsticks too!

・For spoons, ask the staff
Some restaurants only have chopsticks but other places keeps spoons. So, just ask the staff! Now that there are more tourists, there is a great chance the restaurant has spoons.

・Is it ok to turn over fish to eat?
Fried fish is delicious. There are different ways to eat in different countries however, in Japan, we normally do not turn over the fish and simply take off the bones and eat the lower half of the fish.

・Eat Fugu (puffer fish) Sashimi from the middle
Fugu Sashimi is dished up in a circle. As it goes to Tempura, it is better to eat from the one that was placed last to keep the form so eating Fugu sashimi from the middle keeps the beautiful shape.

・Where should you keep the top of the bowl?
This is a pretty hard question. If it was placed on the right, keep it on the right side and if placed on the left, keep it on the left side.

・Where do you put soy sauce on sushi?
When eating sushi, put soy sauce on the fish, not on the rice, by turning over the sushi. Also, put sushi in the mouth so that the fish will touch your tongue. If you are eating from the rice, why not try it this way?

Was I able to answer your questions? Food traditions can be confusing and may be misunderstood, but eating it the right way will lead you to a great experience!