Taboos

Zaru Soba

-Sauce bowl:

Avoid letting any sauce drip from your chopsticks or from the food when you pick it up.

-Side dish:

Avoid pulling dishes towards you with chopsticks because the dish can easily be turned over. Use your free hands. 

-Chopsticks:

Refrain from licking your chopsticks if food happens to get stuck. 

 Matsutake Dobin Mushi

-Teapot:
If no shared utensil is available, flip your chopsticks around and use the end which has not entered the mouth.

-Drinking bowl:

Avoid searching specific bits of food you like in the dishes. Take food from the top of the dish.

-Chopsticks: 

Placing your chopsticks across your bowl indicates that you've finished your meal.

Nabe

-Chopsticks:

Never share food by passing from chopsticks to chopsticks because this resembles a custom at Japanese funerals.

-Pot:

Don't hover your chopsticks over the dishes when thinking what you want. 

This is considered greedy.

-Bowl: empty
It is good to finish everything you are given as a way of showing appreciation.

Bamboo Shoot Dish

-Rice bowl:

Avoid sticking the chopsticks upright in the rice. It's a ritual in Buddhist funerals to mourn the dead.

-Side Dish:

Avoid stabbing food with your chopsticks as a way of picking it up or cutting it into twos.

-Miso Soup:

Slurping shows the chef that the soup is hot, and announces your appetite and appreciation of the dish.

Cup x4

It's a polite gesture to pour for others before pouring for yourself. 

Napkins x4

-Itadakimasu:

Before eating a meal, it’s common to say 'itadakimasu', a polite phrase meaning 'thanks for the food'. 

-Gochisosama:

After eating, people once again express their thanks for the meal by saying 'gochiso sama deshita'.

Itadakimasu and buddhism:

https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/itadakimasu-meaning/

Chopsticks: 

-4 sides

-1cm with ends

-0.5 tip

Chopstick rest:

-29lengthx2.5width

nabe bowl:

45x45