Loading ...“Hashi” in Japanese. Having lived in Hawaii most of my adult life, I eat with chopsticks easily. Our group was gathered at an Inn around a boiling pot of Sukiyaki and some of us were ‘dipping’ in the pot before Mama-san served our bowls. We were a casual crowd, so she overlooked the lack of proper protocol. When she saw me bring a cube of soft tofu out of the boiling soup with left-handed chopsticks, she said something in Japanese to our company host. I inquired what she said, and he was rather embarassed, but translated that: “She says you are very good with the wrong hand!” I replied that was a ‘left-handed compliment’ and I was not offended.
I had a fellow next to me at a lunch counter sitting on stools who turned sideways and just stared at me as I ate with left handed chopsticks. I was careful to keep my left elbow close in so I did not invade his arm space, but he just sat there sideways and stared at me as I ate. I smiled at him and just kept eating. He looked like he had never seen anything so odd in his life, with jaw hanging slightly open.