Children’s Behavior

I will be visiting Japan soon with my 2 kids aged 9 and 7. Can someone advised me if there are certain types of chikdren's behaviour that are unacceptable ? For eg. is it OK if my kids eat with fork and spoon at a Japanese restaurant as they may not be good with chopsticks ?

that's fine. common sense rules over here.

noise is one thing that may be different. if your kids are screamers keep them out of restaurants. it's not acceptable or normal here. i've actually never seen a screaming child outside of their own home - or at least if the child starts whining much they usually get whisked away out of public view.

being foreigners you'll have quite a bit of leeway as far as little cultural things like chopsticks usage, language issues, etc..

I've seen kids behaving really bad in restaurants in japan. so don't worry. the only thing is that in many places there are not paper napkins or they give you one only, on the other hand most of the restaurants give you a wet towel.

You haven't seen screaming kids outisde their homes here winterwolf? I see them all the time, in trains, stations, department stores, some of them throwing real tantrums.

My friends are from Ireland but their daughter was born in Tokyo and she lived here her first 4 years. Staff in family restaurants and even cafes or okonomiyaki restaurants seemed very tolerant of her.

OJLite, there may be some restaurants where they are unable to provide a fork, so make sure to bring your own. If any kind of western food is served at the restaurant there will be forks.

It might be best to stick to family restaurants to start with- they have a range of food including plenty of Japanese options.

While I was living in France, I found that they are not accustomed to clean their hands before eating. In Japan many restaurants serve you Oshibori, a hand towel usually wet and hot, to clean your hands. Otherwise, the customers tend to go to a rest room to wash their hands. Regarding the oshibori, once a foreigner
asked me how could he use it.
I think nobody wants to eat something with his dirty hands.Just in case.

Are you sure that is the case with all the people in France, Eitaro? Maybe just the ones you met.

I find that some Japanese people go overseas, see a few people do something different from the Japanese custom, and then assume that all people from that country, or even all non-Japanese, do the same thing.

Actually I think you will find that in most countries in the world it is considered good hygiene to wash your hands before eating, France included.

Yes, I think it is natural that people prefer cleanliness. Maybe it was the case which I had seen in my small world. In addition, my impression might be amplified by the scene where there were incredibly many dog dirts on the streets. But anyway, I'm working at a restaurant in Tokyo and serve a hand towel to the customers everyday before their eating, and it was only the French guy who didn't understand why he was served it.