560
THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
without boiling water. As a matter of fact boiling water is quite generally used, but whenever the best teas are used, and where, as in private houses, the people endeavor to bring out the finest flavor, the water is just below the boiling temperature. As regards the quickness of making the tea, it must be understood that the tea used by the natives is not dried like the teas prepared for exportation. All the native dried tea, such as is used by the people, is re-dried in the foreign godowns before it is sent abroad.
Just before dinner you will be told that the hot bath is ready. The hot bath is an essential part of Japanese life. There is probably no other thing that the people enjoy so thoroughly. The water is often quite too hot for foreigners, but to get the full benefit of it the temperature should be as high as can be borne. It is then not enervating, but restful. The bath-room is not always private, but is often quite open to passers-by in the hall.
The water is used by all the guests successively, but as no one uses soap, the water remains tolerably clear. The most distinguished guest is given the preference. After the guests follow the heads of the family and children, and lastly the servants. There are many public bath-houses for the people in every town.
The dinner follows the bath, and it is served in so many different styles that any attempt to describe them intelligibly would be hopeless; but usually it is served upon individual red or black lacquered trays, raised on legs from three to eight inches in height. Upon these trays will come five different dishes.
The lower classes live mainly on rice, radishes, and a few other vegetables and pickles, the latter being a very important article of diet. The staple article of food with all classes is rice. The rice is boiled so that the grains retain their form, and it is eaten without seasoning of any kind.
We will suppose the dinner served upon a neat red lacquered zen, or tray. On the right front corner, as we sit facing it, will be a lacquered covered bowl of miso soup, probably containing an egg or some fine-sliced or chopped vegetable. On the left corner will be the porcelain rice bowl; on the corner back of that, a clear vegetable or fish soup, the suimono , or a soup made with egg, fish and vegetables, cooked up all together and called wan-meshi. On the right back corner will probably be some kind of baked or grilled fish. A small cup in the center will contain a relish; it maybe pickles, or beans boiled in black sugar, or fresh cucumber; very likely there will be some fresh radish tops with slioyn , or soy, a kind of sauce from which our Worcester is made. The grilled fish is sometimes replaced by raw fish, cut in slices, to be eaten with shoyn. There is no special ceremony about eating, but some skill is required to manage the chopsticks. These are simply two straight sticks, which are used with one hand. The food is prepared to be lifted with the chopsticks. The grilled fish is rather difficult to manage without a knife and fork. However, every scrap of meat can be" taken up if one is skillful and knows how to begin. The daiko?i , or preserved radish, is at first quite offensive to taste and smell, but after a time it is recognized as a valuable adjunct to a bill of fare, for unseasoned boiled rice soon cloys the appetite unless some such strong flavored preparation is added. This is not a matter of individual experience, but also of the Japanese people. There is always some strong pickle used at their meals; they depend so much upon the nutritive value of rice that they must eat it in large quantities, and this they can not do without something strong to supplement it.
The Japanese bed ife made by spreading a futon, or heavy quilt, on the floor, on which is placed the peculiar wooden pillow and as many quilts for covering as the weather may call for. It may be imagined that such a bed is not springy, even if two or three such quilts are placed beneath one. The bed is not good as compared with our spring and hair mattresses. However, habit is everything. The amado , or outer rain-doors, which protect the house from intruders, and shield the paper doors from rain, being closed, the house becomes quiet and you retire, but doubtless a late party will arrive and make a great noise just when you wish to sleep. As the houses are so open, speaking and laughing are distinctly heard all over, and the Japanese are incessant chatterers.