1): One should always clean their hands before dining with a hot steamed towel.

(2): One should wait for their host or hostest to tell you to eat three times before eating. But if you are with one other person or at a resturaunt, the older of you should eat first.

(3): Always say "Itadekimasu" before eating! It means "I humbily recieve."

(4): Women should cup their other hand beneath their serving when using chopsticks when conveying food from dish/bowl to mouth. Men should not do this.

(5): It is customary for the youngest to serve the alcohol to the seniors

(6): When pouring wine or beer, the hand holding the bottle should pour forward, not backward (over the back of the hand) which is considered an insult.

(7): An older person or senior to the one who poured the alcohol is to pour the alcohol to the younger/ junior.

(8): In Japan, If something might drip onto the table while being transferred in the chopsticks, use the bowl of rice in your other hand to catch the liquid. It is important to not allow this liquid to remain, and so the discolored portion of the rice must be eaten. Rice (in a bowl) should remain white if it was served as such.

(9): When taking a break from eating during a meal, one should place one's chopsticks on the chopstick rest (hashi-oki) provided. A hashi-oki is usually a ceramic rectangle about four centimeters long, or in some restaurants, a halved wine cork is provided.