VILLAGE CREMATORIUM.
DOG HELPING TO PULL JINRIKISHA.
AUTHOR, MR. YAMASAKI AND YOUNGEST INHABITANTS.
The tea produced in Japan is principally green tea. Most of this is of the kind called sencha—Chao means tea. An inferior article made out of older and tougher leaves is called bancha. The custom is for the maid who serves bancha to heat the leaves over the charcoal fire just before infusing. This gives it an agreeable roasted flavour. It is often served in a darker shade of porcelain than is used for ordinary tea. There are also the finer teas, kikicha (powdered tea) and gyokuro (jewelled dewdrops), which is the best kind of sencha. Black tea was being made experimentally when I first arrived in Japan. Brick tea (pressed to the consistency and weight of wood) may be green or black. Most of the exported tea, other than brick tea, goes to America.