These essays show how Japan excels in hospitality. From swanky accommodations for VIPs to banquets and wedding receptions, Japanese hosts make everyone feel like guests of honor. You'll learn about traditional restaurants that resemble large, understated houses and that are so expensive that some Japanese people may never dine in one. You'll find out about banquets, where each course comes on its own tray and where the contents, layout, sequence, and placement of each tray on the table are predetermined. And you'll discover the formality and elegance of dining on trays, which is unthinkable in the West.

When it comes to equipment for everyday dining in Japan, there are abundant choices. From saucers to soup bowls to share plates, dish designs vary. Dining tables can be so low that people must sit on cushions or tatami mats. Trays for presenting goodies vary depending on whether they're for cakes, other sweets, or tea. And chopstick styles differ according to whether they're for cooking or for a man, woman, or child. Chopstick etiquette is paramount, and the staggering number of chopstick no-nos drives home the concept of copious possibilities, so many of them wrong!