Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1894 — The Tea Habit in Japan. [ARTICLE]

The Tea Habit in Japan.

Tea is the beverage and relish of every meal in Japan, even if it be nothing but boiled rice. Every artisan and laborer going to work carries with him a rice box, a kettle, a tea caddy, a teapot and a cup and his chopsticks. A few dry sticks boil the water, and the refreshing beverage is made. The rice is eaten either cold or mixed with hot tea. A complete tea apparatus belongs also to the fittings of the “picnic box,” with which every Japanese is provided when traveling or making an excursion, or at picnic parties, Of the latter, called hanami—i. e., “looking at the flowers”—the Japanese are exceedingly fond, the lovely landscapes with which their country abounds offering the most tempting inducement.—[New York Times. A mirror only reflects ninety to ninety-two per cent, of the light thrown on it.