[moron4hire]

I think it's important to point out that these are good manners for eating with Japanese people, not good manners for eating with chopsticks. There is no requirement to emulate Japanese eating manners if you're not in Japan and not anywhere near a person raised in Japanese cultur. There are other cultures that use chopsticks that do not necessarily have these manners.

[cthalupa]

This is definitely true - but some of these are fairly universal, or at least that is my understanding. I believe the 'no sticking chopsticks upright in rice' one is shared between Japan, Korea, China, etc. for example - it looks like funerary incense/joss sticks in all three due to the shared aspects of their cultures, for example.

[sneak]

I still don’t understand why making my own bowl of rice (being used/eaten by a very much alive person) look like a funeral bowl of rice is a weird or bad thing.

So much of this stuff just seems like a social license to shame people.

[moron4hire]

If you're at home, by yourself, you can belch out loud and eat with your hands and even put your elbows on the table. Literally nobody can stop you.