When the men arrive just at the hour of sundown, everything is in readiness. The fire is burning brightly, the fortune teller is at her post, the kettle is steaming and the refreshments are spread on table cloths laid on the grass. Then the tea is made and each man enjoys a dainty but toothsome repast.
After tea the baskets and equipments are replaced in the wagon and the grounds cleared. The remainder of the evening may be spent in dancing, fortune telling and the like.
CHAPTER VII.
A Japanese Tea. 1.
In Japan the hostess serves the tea from the table. There is a charcoal burner over which the water is kept lukewarm, not hot. The tea is powdered very fine. It is in the teapot or cups as the hostess chooses. The water is poured over it and off quickly for the tea in the cup is very weak and only straw-colored, not dark as we make it. It is drunk without cream or sugar. With it are served tiny wafer-like sweet cakes and dishes of bonbons are on the table, no nuts, just bonbons. Nothing is on the table save the tea equipment, tiny cups and saucers and dishes of sweets. As the water is only lukewarm one can easily have the five o'clock teakettle on the table (though that is not Japanese). As fast as the water boils pour into a pitcher and keep the kettle replenished, pouring into the cups from the pitcher. Or have the maids bring the water from the kitchen. In Japan the geisha girls are employed in the public teahouses to entertain men visitors so "maids" will be a better term by which to call the young girls who help you. If one wishes to make their room Japanese, fill the vases with imitation peach or cherry blossoms, hang Japanese lanterns in doorways and Japanese banners, which can be made from paper napkins and bright red paper for a background. The incense sticks are very inexpensive and any large department store which deals in Japanese goods including the five and ten cent stores, keep them.
Serve date sandwiches cut in shape of dominoes and dotted with currants, or nut or any sandwiches desired cut in this shape and so decorated, chocolate with whipped cream, strawberries arranged around a mound of powdered sugar, a spray of strawberry leaves and blossoms laid on the plate, or any fresh berries. Serve small cakes domino shape covered with white icing, dotted with tiny chocolate candies representing the domino spots. Or if one wishes to serve ice cream with the berries have it moulded in a two quart can, then turned out on a round platter, making a column of ice cream. Surround with fresh berries at the base with a few large perfect berries on top.
A Japanese Tea. 2.
Instead of using the orthodox square at home cards, write the invitations on long, thin, narrow slips of paper, the lettering running from the bottom to the top and from right to left; a few queer birds, the suggestion of a lantern and a falling chrysanthemum splashed in carelessly in sepia, are very effective touches. The cherry-blossoms are used in decorating, which are simply little, round, white paper petals with the edges dipped in red dye, fastened to boughs and put up everywhere, as are also the fluffy chrysanthemums, dainty butterflies, and a profusion of cheap little fans.
A huge Japanese umbrella hangs over the tea-table, at which four girls dressed in kimonas preside, while two others are in the drawing room.