How do you say "no eating while walking" in Japanese?

Name: You Bought the Festival Food. Now Do Not Take a Single Step.
Uploaded: 2026-08-04T21:59:24Z
Duration: 22 s
Description: Learn to say 食べ歩き禁止 (tabearuki kinshi) — no eating while walking. A 30-second Japanese lesson for travelers from Kōfuku.

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You Bought the Festival Food. Now Do Not Take a Single Step.

To say no eating while walking in Japanese, say 食べ歩き禁止 (tabearuki kinshi).

The stall handed it over hot, and nobody mentioned that walking while you eat it is the rude part.

食べ歩き禁止 tabearuki kinshi no eating while walking

Survival Etiquette #learnjapanese #japantravel #japaneseetiquette #matsuri #japantips

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In this video

「食べ歩き禁止」。歩きながら食べないでください。 tabearuki kinshi. arukinagara tabenaide kudasai. 食べ歩き禁止. Please do not eat while walking.
「ここで食べてもいいですか？」 koko de tabete mo ii desu ka? Is it okay to eat here?

Kanji in this phrase

食べ歩き: たべあるき
食べ歩き禁止: たべあるききんし
禁止: きんし
歩きながら: あるきながら
食べないで: たべないで

Why this phrase

On matsuri stall rows and busy food streets like Kyoto's Nishiki and Osaka's Kuromon you will see 食べ歩き禁止. The move is: buy it, step aside, stand still, finish it, then hand the stick back or bin it. Almost every stall has a small standing spot beside it for exactly this. Nishiki's own wording is 「食べながら歩く行為はしないで、購入した店の店頭、又は店内で食べて下さい。」 Stay on the BEHAVIOUR, never on parsing the 禁止 kanji, or it becomes a rerun of the existing kinshi concept. Tone is a friend saving you an awkward moment, never an etiquette cop.