I think they are called "Kanagushi" ...but I'll ask next time I call Japan.

Kintama,

Metal chopsticks....hooboy, many of the fancier Korean chopsticks are metal...and they are thinner and more oblong than the Japanese variety. Boy, I hate those metal chopsticks...and I've been using them since I was a kid. Bleh!

Very good points. Important for older people I think, but young people here (even as old as 50) dont really care that much as long as you aren't gross. Actaully many young Japanese are pretty lacking (ok Im genralizing) in the manners department these days.

I was eating Yakiniku with Japanese friends today and we were all using the same chopsticks to eat and put food in the BBQ, not an issue. I was shocked how relaxed the Japanese (I dont know anything about other asian cultures) are about ettique. Studying Japanese and their culture I was expecting them to be far more stiff about politeness but they're not really that bad.

Its so cute (or patronizing) though when I sat at the table at the resturant today and the waitress runs off and comes back holding a folk for me.

I'm like.
"Ahhhhh, thanks. Chopsticks are fine"

I've been living in Japan for almost 3 years now and I still get Japanese clap when I use chopsticks.

There is a sushi bar that we eat at often, once while eating a bowl of rice I got up to do something and stuck my hashi in the rice, they were there for the owner and his wife in plain view. When I returned she pulled me aside and explained that when someone dies in Japan they set a place in honor of them at the table and stick the hashi in the bowl of rice as I did, hey I didn't know?

that's correct. I made the same mistake before.

Here's a bit from personal experience (I get to post it at least once on every forum );

At a Japanese funeral service/cremation, the hashi have a special purpose and this is why you don't see people passing food from one set of hashi to another.

The Deceased is placed in an all-wooden coffin which is passed into the oven for cremation. The family then repair to an ante-room where they partake of drinks and snacks for... half an hour or so. Then everyone returns to tke part in a highly symbolic moment. The remains in a Japanese cremation are not reduced to the white powdery ash that you see in a Western urn. The family gather around a table where the ash and bone fragments are to be picked up and placed into a small wooden box (about 1 cubic foot). The people form pairs who pick up a fragment between them and place it in the box. Some bones survive cremation better than others, the largest vertebrae is particularly important apparently, there are enough for even a large congregation. All the bones are collected and the ash as well (IIRC). This box is then carried by one of the closest family members for the subsequent rituals.

This is the only time two people are allowed to pick something up with hashi together.

I've seen this in Japan. I don't know if it is a tradition from China or not.

Yes, we did that for our father; but we scatter his bones in the ocean, because he loved the sea and fishing.

I've also heard that it's considered rude to point your hashi directly upwards. Something about it signifying death or something?

Also, does anyone know where to set your hashi down once you've finished eating? I was struggling with this when I went to an authentic Chinese restaraunt recently.