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.