My wife is from Japan. Up until COVID, we spent around 3+ weeks over there, every year, for the past ~18 years. I have never seen her, nor her parents, nor any any of her relatives, nor any friends eat sushi (nigiri and makizushi - the kinds most westerners would be familiar with) with their hands. They (and I, who just follows their lead) always use chopsticks.
The only time I have ever witnessed the whole "with their hands" thing is when we've eaten temaki - it's when there's just a pile of stuff at the table, and you make your own loosely wrapped "cones" yourself - for dinner in her parents' house.
I'm always curious if this whole, "the only true way to eat sushi is with your hands!", thing is regional, just age based, or what.
In any event, they have warmed up a lot to American style sushi, and you will even see stuff inspired by it in some of the "kaiten/conveyor belt" chain places over there, but I've never seen anyone eat it with ketchup.
Edit: Just for the record, I'm no weeb, and not a self proclaimed Japanese cultural expert. I'm just reporting what I've seen.
My wife is from Japan. Up until COVID, we spent around 3+ weeks over there, every year, for the past ~18 years. I have never seen her, nor her parents, nor any any of her relatives, nor any friends eat sushi (nigiri and makizushi - the kinds most westerners would be familiar with) with their hands. They (and I) always use chopsticks.
The only time I have ever witnessed the whole "with their hands" thing is when we've eaten temaki - it's when there's just a pile of stuff at the table, and you make your own loosely wrapped "cones" yourself - for dinner in her parents' house.
I'm always curious if this whole, "the only true way to eat sushi is with your hands!", thing is regional, just age based, or what.
In any event, they have warmed up a lot to American style sushi, and you will even see stuff inspired by it in some of the "kaiten/conveyor belt" chain places over there, but I've never seen anyone eat it with ketchup.
Edit: Just for the record, I'm no weeb, and not a self proclaimed Japanese cultural expert. I'm just reporting what I've seen.