Mind your Kyuushoku Manners

These gems of wisdom were on the kyuushoku centre’s handout. On top it said “Let’s mind our manners at mealtime”. Maybe these were the top three problem areas for students (or teachers) last month or something.

 

The first one here says, “Eat quietly with your mouth closed”. More literally it says “Don’t go chomp chomping, close your mouth and eat”. The onomatopoeia here for chomping your food is “kucha kucha”.

The second one says,” “Eat while holding your dishes”. The picture by the O shows the proper way of holding your rice bowl. The smaller picture by the X shows an example of improper holding.  I’ve never seen anyone hold any dish like that. That seems really hard to eat from.

The whole “holding your dishes while eating” is quite possibly my favorite part of Japanese food. I’ve always wanted to since I was little and now I’ve found an entire country where its ok to pick up your dishes.

The third one says, “While there’s food in your mouth, don’t talk”. I’m not sure if this point is targeted towards kids or adults. Now Japanese people on a whole are pretty polite, but I can count with one finger the teachers I’ve eaten with who eat with their mouth closed: me. I don’t get it. Most of the teachers here are pretty quiet, but for some reason, the presence of food in their mouths turns them into a chatty Cathy.