Dine Like a Pro: Japanese Table Manners You Need to Know!

have you ever felt awkward at a Japanese restaurant not knowing the proper way to eat well today we're going to be diving into the fascinating world of Japanese dining etiquette so let me show you some important dos and Dons for your next visit to a restaurant in Japan with these simple rules you know exactly how to dine like a local but before we go make sure to subscribe for more awesome Japan content let's [Music] go many of you may know the Japanese culture and Japanese edate can be very meticulous and at times complex but did you know that the origin of this actually started in the 16th and 17th century with Japanese Samurai Japanese Samurai were always armed with swords so at the table there needed to be a kind of Tru in order to maintain peace amongst all parties this is how the ritualized practice of Tea Ceremony came to be samurai had to adhere to the many rules and manners in order to maintain a sense of Harmony and peace at least while within the confines of the Tea Room Tea Ceremony is not the only place where you can see this kind of rigid adherence to manners so you can actually still see this in food culture and also in business even in Japan today I am here now at Ginza and I'm going to be going to a sushi restaurant called Sushi and it's a high-end sushi restaurant that's hidden down these stairs there are a couple of things to keep in mind when you go to a sushi restaurant one of those things is to always come on time as you may or may not know Japanese people are known for their punctuality and if you come late to a sushi restaurant there is a high possibility that even if you had a reservation your spot will be canceled this is to make sure that everybody at the restaurant can enjoy the sushi experience fully the other thing to make sure of is sushi restaurants are fancy restaurants so make sure to dress up nicely when you go to sushi restaurant and also fun fact you're actually not supposed to wear perfumes or cologn or anything that smells strongly when you go into a sushi restaurant but let's go inside side and find out [Music] why there are some restaurants where they actually have a a plate for you to dip your sushi into the soy sauce and love some Wasabi on the side in that case you can add a little bit of Wasabi on top of your sushi if you would like more but you should never open up your sushi and put it inside if you open it up that's extremely disrespectful and you should never do that at any sushi restaurant it's totally up to you at sushi restaurants whether you eat it with your hands or Chopsticks both are totally okay and if you're going to eat with your hands they will give you this little wipe to clean your hands and then you can just pick it up like so okay so we'll take it in one bite here we go wow she so M that is really really really good I don't know what it is but I really really like this soup Sushi not only because the fish is so fresh but also the red vinegar and the rice is a really nice touch [Music] m m this is really really good the texture of the clam is kind of similar to a scallop it's really meaty it has has a little bit of a hint of spice to it because of the ichim me um and the soy sauce it Blends together so well and finished off with a crisp NY seaweed on the [Music] end m so the rice has actually changed the type of vinegar that he uses for the rice is not the red vinegar anymore so it's a little bit more [Music] mild is it was really buttery even a little bit [Music] sweet creamy isn't it for anybody who loves fried things that is really fantastic it's basically a creamy crab cake that's been crisply deep fried and the outside is really nice and crisp and crunchy and the inside is creamy and you get that Umami from the crab this is actually my first time having anago eel with two different kinds of seasonings I'm going to start with the salt since that's [Music] recommended M that is a wonderful gentle but Heavenly flavor actually wow it's just this really fluffy and warm meat from the anle just very delicately salted and you can enjoy the the taste of the vinegar and the rice as well brings it all together so beautifully let's have our last bite of sushi for my lunch today this is the one with the sweet [Music] sauce M that is really tasty it's also a very delicate flavor and the sauce is also not overpowering at all it's very faintly sweet with a little bit of that Teriyaki like Umami and then the rice brings it all together again with this wonderful deep red vinegar flavor it's just kind of a richer vinegar I think this is a wonderful way to end my sushi lunch course today and I'm very glad that I didn't wear perfume so I could enjoy all of those flavors for as they truly are all right it's time for me to keep exploring and also let's go learn some manners at other Japanese restaurants see you guys at the next spot e [Music] here we are now at funji this is a wonderful local Ramen Shop that's in the Shinjuku and Yogi area and the locals absolutely love it they'll line up for like 2 hours outside just to eat here so let's go inside and learn how to eat it the right way first off when you come to a ramen restaurant you usually need to order your Ramen from this ticket machine most ramen shops have them and they're very easy to use you just put your coins in your money your bills in here and then you choose whatever Ramen you want so I'm going to go with the special Ramen today yay and we've got our ticket and you give it to the shop staff and then they'll make your Ramen for [Music] you wow what a delicious looking bowl of ramen the soup looks so rich one thing that's important to do in Japan at any restaurant whether it's Ramen Sushi wherever you go is to sayas before you eat this roughly translates to I will humbly receive this food it's really showing respect to both the food itself and also to the person who makes the food say it with me Ita ducky mus I want to debunk the myth that you have to slurp your noodles in Japan in order to be polite it is true that slurping your Ren shows some appreciation uh to the to the owner the reason is because if you're slurping it obviously it seems like you're really enjoying your food you're just trying to get in your mouth as fast as possible so they appreciate it when you do slurp but it's really up to you another reason why Ramen Fanatics usually recommend to slurp your Ramen is because it allows more air and also soup to enter your mouth as you're eating the noodles which adds more flavor M wo actually I think the slurping did help a lot I got a burst of flavor in that bite oh my goodness the soup is so rich it's like a creamy chicken broth one other thing that's not specifically a rule but it's not really ideal in ramen culture specifically is that you're not supposed to bite the noodles before they go in your mouth the solution is you use your Lang so you take a small handful of noodles and then you put it on your Lange spoon that way you can control the amount of noodles that are that you're actually going to be eating M it worked and it's very delicious I'm going to be doing that from now on give it a try one other Chopstick related rule in Japan is that you're not actually supposed to point with your chopsticks and when you're done eating or if you're taking a break from eating don't stab your chopsticks into the noodles this is considered actually kind of impolite so instead you should put your chopsticks neatly on your bowl like so and that's a good way to take a pause from eating if you eaten too much and you're full woo that was an amazing bowl of ramen very very filling I think since the soup is so rich it does make you feel extra full and now I want to mention what do you do with the soup it's actually very common to not finish your soup in Japan but if you do want to drink some soup you can also drink it directly from the bowl M rich and delicious and there you have it that's basically some things to keep in mind when you eat ramen I have another place to take you guys to learn a little bit more about Japanese food etiquette let's go to the next [Music] place [Music] for hi my final stop of the day is the famous restaurant gachi located in Nishi aabu this isaka restaurant is particularly renowned for being the restaurant that was the model for the famous fight scene in quinon Tarantino's film Kill Bill so let's go inside and try some of their incredible food and I'll show you a few tips and etiquette for eating in a Japanese isaka what a great atmosphere and look this place is so famous countless celebrities have visited here including Prime Ministers and presidents this is so crazy so yeah this is clearly a popular restaurant let's go inside wow this place looks incredible it looks exactly like the movie and fun fact for you guys some some people may think that the movie was actually filmed in this restaurant it actually was filmed in China and they made a set that looks exactly like this restaurant the atmosphere here is gorgeous it the staff are so Lively and it feels like I'm in Old Japan it kind of feels like I'm outdoors in an old Japanese town it's beautiful this is my seat and as per Japanese isaka style you take off your shoes before you sit down even though this particular area isn't tatami flooring but this one you can put your feet in it's very comfortable but let's take off our shoes all right time to order let's start with drinks when we think think of isaka we start with beer in Japan we have a phrase called toru [Music] beer so I'm starting with this kin Ichiban shibori and it's in a bottle of course draft beer is okay too but I'm going to show you guys the pouring culture so I have a lovely volunteer today who is the producer of BYU this is Ellie she's made a couple of brief appearances before I feel like she should make more appear is but she's a little shy so basically what you want to do is if you have a if you're drinking with somebody else you should always pour their drink for them especially if it's in a bottle and normally the etiquette is to always make sure that the label is visible um to other people so it should be pointing up or to the side um so let's pour the drink and the person who's receiving the drink as Ellie is doing should hold the glass with two hands it's just very polite manner and in Japan it's customary to pour for each other now that we have our two glasses of beer it's time to compy or cheers to somebody that you want to show respect for when you clink glasses you want to lower your glass like so not directly up here so I'm going to show respect to Ellie she's she's the producer so she's she's kind of my boss all right so she's she's the she's the boss here so I'm going to do a little low clink let's give it a try ready come by come by there are some cases where you'll order the drinks and everybody's waiting you might feel inclined to take a sip but you shouldn't in Japanese culture you don't take the first sip of your drink until the group compy has been done isayas are meant for sharing so that's why you will always have something called Tana which are it literally translates to taking plate so let's use our to Zetta and I'm I'm going to start by trying this wug you sirloin steak it looks so good so here's quiz time do you guys remember what we say before we eat that's right M that is amazing that is so so good the take first of all is so juicy so tender perfectly salted with some nice flaky salt some nice grounds of black pepper and also you get this Citrus taste as well next I want to try the shrimp [Music] dumpling M the texture is incredible the outside is nice and crispy but not as hard as you would expect and the inside is a nice fluffy shrimp cake this is the tamago Yaki it's a fluffy fluffy egg roll since it needs to be cut you can use chopsticks to cut it um but you do want a clean pair of Chopsticks so don't use your own which are used and dirty that would be a a no no so let's use the communal clean Chopsticks beautiful ones to cut some slic all right so now I'm going to eat with my own [Music] Chopsticks M incredibly fluffy surprisingly juicy it has a lot of umami from the dashy broth that the egg is cooked in and the uh the soy sauce with the daon adds a nice kick of flavor as well now finally let's try some Yaki skewers here this is the classic Yakitori but I want to try first the Tanuki as you can see it's a shake mushroom that is stuffed with chicken meat it tastes so Smokey so it's kind of a combination of the chicken meatball skewer called theun which is a mix of chicken meat and also some of the cartilage it's a little got a little bit of crunch to it and it's inside a nice tender and bouncy shiu mushroom that was an incredible meal honestly one of the best meals ever it was everything was really top-notch and very unique dishes so in Japan when you finish eating you put your hands together and you say go it's a little bit long but you can say it with me it's sadish I'm pretty sure that'll be on the screen right there go sadish it means thank you for the meal and normally you're giving thanks to the restaurant the people who cook the food giving thanks and probably personally I believe it's related to Buddhist culture so let's say it together yes GOI sa it was delicious thank you yay and you can also use this phrase as you're walking out the door and the restaurant will be very very happy to hear you say that so keep that in mind it's kind of like saying thank you thank you for the for the dinner it was delicious so give that a [Music] try byebye the dinner was fantastic the food was all amazing and the atmosphere was so much fun it feels like old Japan but also simultaneously it kind of felt like eating on a movie set and I hope that some of my tips for Japanese etiquette were helpful to you guys and hopefully you guys learned something new in this video and speaking of etiquette while eating I want to know have you guys ever had an experience eating abroad where you felt really embarrassed or really awkward or made any faux Paws while you're eating abroad I'd love to know let me know in the comments down below anyway if you guys enjoyed this video please make sure to give us a like comment and don't forget to subscribe and we'll see you guys very soon in another video bye guys [Music]

Channel: Japan by Food

Views: 256,470

Keywords: japan, japan by food, japanesefood, japanese table manners, japanese restaurant dos and donts, japanese eating etiquette, how to eat like a local, how to eat in japan, japanese meal etiquette, japanese table etiquette, japanese food culture, chopsticks, japanese etiquette eating, japan food tips, japan travel guide, slurping in japan, table manners in japan, tokyo travel guide, how to dine out in japan, eating at a japanese restaurant, how to dining out in japan

Id: gGy0YJ7wI3g

Length: 21min 5sec (1265 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 28 2023