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Japanese etiquitte is more formal than in America and there re a range of sutleties and nuances. This is porimarily taught at home. Prents teach children to have good manners and respect for others before they begin school. We notice classes in etiquitte at school. We believe this is a reltivly recent inovation, the schools beginning to do something that was formnally taught primarily at home. We are not sure how common etiquitte lessons are. They may be more common in private schools. We believe this is primarily, if not entirely, a primary school activity, but we are not yet sure about that. Japanese children eat lunch at school and this is a good opportunity to teach etiquitte. We believe that lunch is commonly eaten in the classroom rather than in a cafereria which is not common in primary schools. Notice that we rarely see Jpabese children carrying lunch boxes to school, although we are not entirely sure what is iun heir back satchels. Again we We are less sure about wether there are cafeterias at secondary schools. The Japanese use hand towels to clean hands before eating. We notice the etiquitte at one orinary school where the children neatly tuck red hand towells into their waistbands. The children re tught to say "Itadakimasu" (頂きます) before beginning to eat. This literally means "I humbly receive this meal." It is said much like like "Bon appetit" in the West. But the Japanese ALWAYS say it and not just on special occasions. One very important rule is eat slowly, bit by bit. It is impolite to eat the entire contents of a dish or bowl at once. The children are taught to eat a little bit of each dish at a time. Interestingly, slurping is not a taboo. It is quite acceptable both to bring a soup bowl up to your mouth when eating. And th diner is even encouraged to slurp while consumin noodles. There are also a range of rules when eatting chopsticks.
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