Sushi Etiquette in Japan

This may not come as a shock to you, but the way people eat sushi in the United States is most often completely different than the way people eat it in Japan. If you plan on eating this Japanese staple in its home nation, try and follow Japanese etiquette during your meal to avoid coming across as rude.

CNN interviewed Koji Sawada of the prestigious Sushi Sawada in Tokyo to try and garner the proper rules of etiquette to follow when eating sushi in Japan.

According to Sawada, diners should not be afraid to use their hands while consuming sushi. By picking your sushi up with your hands and turning it upside down, it allows you to gently dip the fish portion of the sushi into soy sauce before eating. The fish should hit your tongue first, not the rice, Sawada said.

Don’t overdo it on the soy sauce, though — many chefs will be offended if they see a diner using a lot of the sauce for dipping, as it implies the chef did not season their food properly.

You should eat the ginger, or gari, as a palate-cleanser between dishes, not as a topping for your sushi, as is commonly done in the U.S., according to Sawada. Also, while diners can dip sashimi in a mixture of wasabi and soy sauce, mixing the two as a dip for sushi is considered impolite.

Finally, according to Sawada, sushi should be eaten as soon as it is put down in front of you. Leaving it sitting for too long is not polite.