Chopstick bad manners in oneself and others

I think foreign residents in Japan actually seem on average to be better users of chopsticks than the Japanese, although I have absolutely no data to back up that claim, nor a similar claim that most foreigners’ chopstick skills outdo Japanese’s cutlery skills. However, there are a multitude of finer points of etiquette regarding these implements that may not be familiar to many of my readers, nor to me for that matter, so to see what faux pas our hosts may be looking out for, or indeed doing themselves, let’s look at a couple of surveys from goo Ranking on bad chopstick habits people have and bad manners in others that they can’t help noticing. Both surveys were conducted between the 20th and 24th of July 2007.

For me, in Q1 I do 1 rarely, 2 a bit with soba, and 5 sometimes. One manner not noted is rubbing the ends of your sticks together to get rid of splinters, which is apparently an insult to the restaurant or host that you think their chopsticks are cheap and splinter-prone.

Ranking results

Q1: Which chopstick bad manners can you just not break?

Rank	日本語	Explanation	Score
1	渡し箸	watashi bashi: Resting chopsticks sideways across the top of dishes	100
2	探り箸	saguri bashi: Stirring soup trying to find that last chunk of tofu, etc	83.1
3	突き箸・刺し箸	tsuki bashi, sashi bashi: Spearing food then eating it	79.1
4	直箸	choku bashi: Not using the serving chopsticks, but your own sticks to get food from shared plates	71.2
5	もぎ箸	mogi bashi: Sucking off grains of rice, etc, stuck to the chopsticks	65.4
6	重ね箸	kasane bashi: Eating just one dish continuously	61.9
7	持ち箸	mochi bashi: Grabbing a dish, glass, etc whilst holding chopsticks in the same hand	61.6
8	迷い箸	mayoi bashi: Hovering chopsticks over the dishes while humming and hawing about what to eat	54.4
9	受け箸	uke bashi: Holding chopsticks when asking for more rice	44.8
10	掻き箸	kaki bashi: Holding a bowl to your mouth and shovelling food in	43.0
11	舐り箸	neburi bashi: Licking your chopsticks	27.6
12	撥ね箸	hane bashi: Pushing away disliked food with chopsticks	23.8
13	寄せ箸	yose bashi: Pulling dishes closer with chopsticks	23.5
14	洗い箸	arai bashi: Washing chopsticks in soup	16.3
15	指し箸	sashi bashi: Pointing at people or things with chopsticks	15.7
16	すかし箸	sukashi bashi: Rather than turning over a fish, picking away the meat from under the bones	14.8
17	揃え箸	soroe bashi: Suddenly lunging at dishes with chopsticks ready	13.1
18	空箸	kara bashi: Picking up food but not eating it	8.7
19	移り箸・渡り箸	utsuri bashi, watari bashi: Aiming to pick up one dish, but then suddenly switching to another	8.7
20	涙箸	namida bashi: Allowing tears of soup to drip from your chopsticks	7.8

Q2: Which chopstick bad manners in others can you just not help noting?

Rank	日本語	Explanation	Score
1	仏箸	hotoke bashi: The gaijin etiquette book favourite, standing your chopsticks up in a bowl of rice	100
2	指し箸	sashi bashi: Pointing at people or things with chopsticks	91.9
3	叩き箸	tataki bashi: Making a noise by striking dishes with chopsticks	90.1
4	寄せ箸	yose bashi: Pulling dishes closer with chopsticks	84.8
5	舐り箸	neburi bashi: Licking your chopsticks	73.4
6	合わせ箸	awase bashi: Passing food from chopstick to chopstick – another foreigner etiquette book favourite	71.0
7	噛み箸	kami bashi: Chewing chopsticks	68.2
8	涙箸	namida bashi: Allowing tears of soup to drip from your chopsticks	67.4
9	突き箸・刺し箸	tsuki bashi, sashi bashi: Spearing food then eating it	62.6
10	せせり箸	seseri bashi: Poking or playing with your food using chopsticks	62.1
11	迷い箸	mayoi bashi: Hovering chopsticks over the dishes while humming and hawing about what to eat	56.1
12	移り箸・渡り箸	utsuri bashi, watari bashi: Aiming to pick up one dish, but then suddenly switching to another	49.9
13	空箸	kara bashi: Picking up food but not eating it	49.5
14	違い箸	chigai bashi: Using a mis-matched pair of chopsticks	48.0
15	洗い箸	arai bashi: Washing chopsticks in soup	46.2
16	撥ね箸	hane bashi: Pushing away disliked food with chopsticks	36.0
17	揃え箸	soroe bashi: Suddenly lunging at dishes with chopsticks ready	35.0
18	掻き箸	kaki bashi: Holding a bowl to your mouth and shovelling food in	33.1
19	持ち箸	mochi bashi: Grabbing a dish, glass, etc whilst holding chopsticks in the same hand	29.8
20	込み箸	komi bashi: Stuffing too much food into your mouth	28.0