Japanese Food Etiquette

Oshibori
In most Japanese restaurants, especially those who emphasize themselves with traditional customs will offer you a hot or cold  'oshibori', this is a small towel for you to wipe your hands & face. The purpose of this, apart from hygiene, is to give you a refreshing feeling as soon as you sit on the table. This is normally served in a basket for you to pick one then returned again once you have finished.

Miso Soup
A very common side soup accompanied with almost every main meal is the miso soup. Made of soy bean curd, miso consists of little natural ingredients. When a miso soup is left in a bowl for a little while you will see that the miso paste begins to settle in the bottom of the cup. This is natural. Before drinking the soup from the bowl make sure to stir the miso to get the real flavour of the soup. It is also polite around Japanese people to softly slurp soup & noodles if you are enjoying it.

Chopsticks:
If you ever see Japanese people using chopsticks you will notice a difference between a female & a male at a dinner table. Japanese women tend to use this asian cutlery more delicately than men do. You will notice that women eat slower than men do - perhaps this is universal. However I have noticed that Japanese women dont want to be seen as a glut when they are eating and tend eat carefully and sensually. However all Japanese people will hold the rice bowl on the palm of their left hand under the right hand while they use their right to pick food with their chopsticks. Also it is common to scoop rice from the bowl and put the edge of the bowl into their mouth. This is a practical way of eating in order to avoid food from falling on to the floor.
One thing you should never do, at least infront of Japanese people, is to never rest your chopsticks upright in the rice bowl. This is badluck according to Japanese superstition. Japanese believe that doing so means calling the dead spirits. It is also considered bad manners. Most restaurants will provide you with a chopsticks rest for you to lay them properly.