Etiquette Is Part of the Craft, Not a Test

Book a sushi making course and you will spend most of your hours on rice, knife skills and shaping nigiri with steady hands. Yet the part students ask about most is not technique at all — it is how to behave at the table. In Japan, how you eat matters as much as what you eat, and the small rituals around the plate exist to show respect for the ingredients, the chef and everyone sharing the meal. Nothing is designed to catch you out. Once you understand the reasoning behind each custom, the anxiety lifts and you can give your full attention to what is in front of you.

Here is how we guide students through it, and what will serve you well in any Japanese restaurant in the UK.

Chopstick Confidence

Chopsticks, or hashi, are the first thing people worry about, but the rules are simple enough to master in a single lesson.

• Rest them on a chopstick rest (hashioki) whenever you pause. If there isn't one, fold the paper wrapper into a small stand, or lay them across the top of your plate.
• Never stand them upright in a bowl or glass of rice. This mirrors the incense offered at funerals and is the one mistake that genuinely unsettles a Japanese host.
• Never pass food from your chopsticks to someone else's. At funerals, relatives pass cremated bone this way. Place the piece on their plate instead.
• Do not spear food, point with your chopsticks, or wave them about while talking.
• Avoid rubbing disposable wooden chopsticks together. It implies you expect them to be splintered and cheap, which can read as a slight on the establishment.

Dipping, Wasabi and Ginger

Soy sauce is a seasoning, not a soup. The delicacy of good fish and properly seasoned rice is easily lost in a salty puddle, so use a shallow pool in the dish and think in touches rather than dunks.

• For nigiri, turn the piece on its side and dip the fish lightly into the soy, not the rice. Rice absorbs liquid like a sponge, so a rice-first dip gives you a soggy mouthful and often ends up in the dish.
• Wasabi is usually applied by the chef between the fish and the rice, which is why the warmth arrives without you doing anything. Extra is optional, never obligatory.
• Mixing wasabi into your soy dish is a habit best left behind. It muddles both flavours, and a good chef may take it as a hint that the sushi needs rescuing.
• Pickled ginger (gari) is a palate cleanser, eaten between pieces to reset your taste buds. It is not a topping, so keep it off the sushi and out of the soy.

How to Eat Nigiri and Maki

Nigiri is built to be eaten in one bite, and the chef has balanced rice, fish and wasabi for exactly that. Pick it up with chopsticks or with your fingers — both are perfectly correct, and fingers are traditional at the counter. Turn the piece fish-side down, place it on your tongue and chew. Biting a piece in half is fine in a relaxed setting, but at a serious counter it leaves a ragged edge and the second half tends to collapse.

Maki is handled slightly differently. Dip just a corner of the roll into the soy, or use the seaweed edge as your dipping surface if it is wrapped in nori. That way the roll keeps its shape and you taste the filling rather than a mouthful of salt. Eat sushi as soon as it reaches you; a piece left sitting loses the contrast between cool fish and body-warm rice that makes it worth ordering. If you are working through a selection, begin with lighter white fish, move to richer and fattier cuts, then finish with rolls.

At the Table: Towels, Drinks and Thanks

The hot towel (oshibori) is for your hands only — not your face, and not the table. Use it, fold it neatly and place it back where it came from. With miso soup, lift the bowl and drink from it, using chopsticks for the solids.

• Do not pour your own drink. Pour for your companions and let them pour for you; it is a small loop of mutual care that sets the tone for the whole meal.
• Say itadakimasu quietly before eating, and gochisousama deshita when you finish. Roughly "I humbly receive" and "thank you for the feast", they cost you nothing and are warmly received.
• Compliment the rice. It is the hardest thing to get right and the highest praise you can offer a chef.
• In the UK, tip as you would anywhere else. In Japan, tipping is not customary; sincere thanks carry more weight.

Showing Appreciation to the Chef

Ask questions if you are seated at the counter and the kitchen is not in the middle of a rush. Chefs are usually delighted to explain a cut of fish or the ageing behind a piece, and mentioning that you are learning yourself invites generous advice. A simple oishii — delicious — delivered with eye contact says more than any flourish.

What you should not do is request changes to a set piece, bury excellent fish under sauces, or leave a pile of rice behind. Taste before you season, eat what you are given, and trust the person who made it. That single habit, more than any chopstick trick, marks out a guest who understands the craft — and it is exactly the mindset we hope students carry out of the classroom and into every restaurant they visit afterwards.