if it is in the upper story, on a small balcony. Immediately outside there is always a vessel filled with water and a scoop. Generally on one side of the room there is a wall-press, in which the bed-clothes are kept. Those, the only household articles in the room, consist of a thick mat, which is spread on the floor, a round cushion for the head, or instead of it a wooden support, stuffed on the upper side, for the neck during sleep, and a thick stuffed night-shirt which serves at covering.
As soon as one comes in the female attendants distribute four-cornered cushions for sitting on, which are placed on the floor round a wooden box, on one corner of which stands a little brazier, on the other a high clay vessel of uniform breadth, with water in the bottom, which serves as a spittoon and tobacco-ash cup. At the same time tea is brought in anew, in the small cups previously described, with saucers, not of porcelain, but of metal. Pipes are lighted, and a lively conversation commences. Along with the tea sweetmeats are brought in, of which, however, some cannot be relished by Europeans. The brazier forms the most important household article of the Japanese. Braziers are very variable in size and shape, but are often made in an exceedingly beautiful and tasteful way, of cast-iron or bronze, with gilding and raised figures. Often enough, however, they consist only of a clay crock. The Japanese are very skilful in keeping up fire in them without the least trace of fumes being perceptible in the room. The fuel consists of some well-burned pieces of charcoal, which lie imbedded in white straw-ashes, with which the fire-pan is nearly filled to the brim. When some glowing coals are laid in such ashes they retain their heat for hours, until they are completely consumed. In every well-furnished house there are a number of braziers of different sizes, and there are often four-cornered hatches in the floor, which conceal a stone foundation intended as a base for the large brazier, over which the food is cooked
At meal-times all the dishes are brought in at the same time on small lacquered tables, about half a foot high, and with a surface of four square feet. The dishes are placed in lacquered cups, less frequently in porcelain cups, and carried to the mouth with chop-sticks, without the help of knife, fork, or spoon. For fear of the fish-oils, which are used instead of butter, I never dared to test completely the productions of the Japanese art of cookery; but Dr. Almquist and Lieut. Nordquist, who were more unprejudiced, said they could put up with them very well. The following menu gives an idea of what a Japanese inn of the better class has to offer:—
Vegetable soup.
Boiled rice, sometimes with minced fowl.
Boiled fish or raw fish with horse-radish.
Vegetables with fish-sauce.
Tea.
Soy is used to the fish. The rice is brought in hot in a wooden vessel with a lid, and is distributed in abundance, but the other dishes in extremely small portions. After meals, especially in the evening, the Japanese often drink warm saki, or rice-brandy, out of peculiar porcelain bottles and small cups set apart for that purpose alone.