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Traditions of eating
Japanese dinner etiquette
Bow when seated
Esyaku is a Japanese greeting. It is a bow with straighten fingers. Hands with slightly drawn fingers are placed near knees. Three bows are made. A body bends so that finger tips touch tatami.
Greeting.
Words of greeting are pronounced before sitting down on zabuton (flat cushion for seating). Having finished greeting one must make a deep bow. A bow is done one time from all the heart.
How to behave waiting for a host (mistress)
When you are shown into a room, take a seat close to a door waiting for a host. If you are offered zaduton do not refuse. Put your bag and present not far from you. You should seat still before a host comes trying not to turn you head. But if there is tokonoma niche with a suspended roll or ikebana in the room you should admire them seating as they were prepared by a host especially for guests. When a host appears one should go down from zabuton and greet him.
How to sit on zabuton
- Stand near zabuton from the lower place (the side, located closer to entrance and father from tokonoma niche).
- Sit down as required near zabuton.
- Get down on the knees and move your knees to zabuton from the lower place.
- Rest your hands slightly fisted on a cushion and with the help of your knees move to zabuton.
- Turn your face forward and sit down in the center of zabuton.
- Looking straight forward adopt a pose suitable for a sitting person.
Where is the front of zabuton
Out of four sides of zabuton only one has no seam. It is called "wa" (ring or circle) and it is the front of a cushion. You need to sit down on zabuton so that "wa" is under the knees.
Traditional Japanese room
In Japanese rooms there are tokonoma niche meant for showing rolls with pictures (kakejiku) or ikebana.
The most correct arrangement of a Japanese room is the one in which tokonoma is located in the remotest part of a room in the center. The place at a table located back to tokonoma is considered the most honorable.
There are rooms where tokonoma is located in the right or left part of a room. Arrangement of a room with a right hand tokonoma is called "hangatte", with a left hand one - "gyakugatte". In this case the place located in the part with tokonoma is considered an honorable one.
Order of seating
During official receptions you need to think about a special seat for everybody. Though feudal times stayed in the past if a lower-ranked person who is late takes a seat in front of tokonoma it can't be but criticized. Let's remember the main seats.
The upper and the lower seats in a Japanese room are determined depending of location of tokonoma and entrance to a room.
If a guest aiming at looking modest won't obey to a host and take a lower seat this can ruin the order of reception of guests and bring additional anxiety to a host.
Rice and soup are eaten one at a time
When all the guests have gathered food is served. Everybody gets bowls with rice, soup and pickled things on a tray. When all the trays are placed guests greet each other and at the same time uncover bowls with rice and soup. Then cover are put one on another as if connecting them by their inner parts and put to the right of a tray.
First rice is eaten, then soup is drunk and thing soup contains are eaten with chopsticks. So rice and soup are eaten one at a time. At the same time before taking or putting one or another bowl chopsticks are put on a tray too and bowls are taken with both hands. Having finished with rice and soup people take cover and cover bowls with them.
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