Julia Altshuler wrote:
> I forget which thread this morphed from, but I got interested in
> Japanese table manners and North American table manners when eating
> Japanese food. I asked a Japanese friend. She lives most of the time
> in Japan, gets work some of the time in the U.S. and Europe, learned
> English in school and speaks English fluently, if somewhat accented.
>
>
> I asked her:
>
> Is sushi or sashimi ever eaten with one's fingers in Japan? I'm not
> talking about times when one's willing to make allowances for the
> Western idiots. In Japan, amongst people who should know better, in
> restaurants and private homes, does one always use chopsticks?
>
>
> She answered:
>
> It's OK to eat Sushi (not Sashimi) with your fingers. But I would
> advise to use chopsticks. If you can't properly eat sushi with fingers,
> it can turn ugly.
>
>
> --Lia
>

I think it proper to use chopsticks but would have no problem using the
fingers depending on the configuration of the piece. There's no doubt
that sometime during a meal I'll use my fingers at least a couple of
times. The problem is that most folks aren't that great at using hashi.
If you're seated before a plate of sushi, use your fingers if you have
to, please don't ever use a fork... that thought gives me the shivers!

Japanese folk will shove the whole piece into their mouth. Here I must
break protocol as I don't feel right about doing this and I'll always
bite the piece right in middle which, I'll admit sometimes causes other
problems. The Japanese would probably think I'm a wimp. :-)

It's said the Japanese will invert the piece to place the fish topping
onto the tongue - maybe they do. I don't know about that. However, on my
little place on earth, this is impractical because we have pesky
gravity. :-)