spoon-fork-knife-CHOPSTICKS

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Why do I write chopsticks all in capital letters? Because it is the main utensil that Japanese people use when they eat. Not like spoon or fork or knife which have 'shape', when someone say the word 'chopsticks', all that my brain can imagine is a pair of quite long stick made from bamboo or wood or plastic or metal. However, its simpleness is not equally correlated to user-friendliness. 


I remember, on my first day in Japan, my professor treated me and my friend, who also had just arrived, for a very very late lunch (or should I say early dinner instead? since it was at 5.30 pm). We had a set menu of tempura and soup. Only chopsticks, no spoon and fork, was provided along with the food. When I started to use the chopsticks, my senior, who sat in front of me, looked at how I hold them (the usual way as I do it back in my country) and asked, "Do you use chopsticks in your country?". Rarely, yes, but it is influenced by Chinese culture. Usually we use spoon, fork, knife and bare hands, if it can be counted as eating utensils. "Oh, I see.", he replied shortly. Leaving me with big question mark, "What's wrong with my grip?".  

Because of that moment, I started to pay attention on how Japanese people hold their chopsticks. Until eventually I mastered the chopstick using technique. Huff. It turns out to be true. If you hold the chopstick correctly, it will be stable in your hand and you can even grab large slice of food without dropping it easily or picking fish bones with it. 
Training shopstick
There should be short course for this since you need lots of practice before finally become skillful. Perhaps that's why they sell special chopsticks for babies to learn how to use chopsticks correctly. Unfortunately training chopsticks for adults is not on market (yet). Potential market? If only chopsticks company read this post. 

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Speaking of chopsticks, of course you can read wikipedia page to get more info. Once I watched a television program about chopsticks. Actually there are different chopsticks for each different food. For ramen, for soba, for udon (all are types of noodles  in Japan), for fish, for... What else? I don't remember precisely though. Just impressed of how various chopsticks truly is. 

There are etiquettes of using chopsticks too, for instance, do not stab chopsticks on rice since it is commonly done at funerals and doing it will be considered offensive. Or never pass food from one chopsticks to another since this practice resembles transferring bones from burned body from person to person at Buddhist funerals. Many others. You can read it more here. The site is very informative. 

Since some Japanese cuisines have become global trend nowadays, I guess handling chopsticks will become one more extra skill that you can be proud of. 




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