The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-04-05

japanese TO squat on Every time YOU
went there the pretty little musmee, gay
with scarlet robe and gaudy hairpins.
used to approach with . trayful Of cups Of
tea favored with sailed cherry blossoms.
For the ssnere fun of the thing, because
she did 1t SO quantity and prettily, We
would wait until she had sucked in her
breath and rubbed her knees with her hands
(which is the out~of-door equivalent to the
kowtowb and then sent her back with an
.sI,imasen: Yokohama bieru-sake dozo,"
CT don't care about it.; give me some
Yokohama bear, piease''1; and then the
old woman. the padrona who ran the
place. would come out. suffused with
smiles, for Yokohama bieru-sake cost S5
cents bottle, and the cherry blossom tea
about cents for the whole party.
At Kameido they have . lovely tea-gar-
den in the temple Of Sugawara No-Michi-
zane, the patron Of Japanese literature.
One has to cross over the famous horse
shoe bridge. over which the arch is
SO steep that it has steps like treadmill
up its back, to . tea-house formed by
q natural arbor of wistaria-such wistaria!
doubt if the world has its equal. The
arbor stands on the waters edge, and in
May, wheuthe Fuji, as the japanese have
mountain, is in full bloom, the water is
swept by vast, feathery racemes Of delicate.
biac-colored blossoms three or four feet
long, odorous of honey and buzzing with
bees. Jap bees have learned livery likely
the Japs have educated them, as they edu-
cate fir trees TO dwarf themselves. and
plum trees 10 tie themselves mp in knots)
not to take the slightest notice of people
who go 10 drink tea IN their honey orchards.
Another delightful tea garden is the
Gwario-bai. or Garden of the Sleeping
Dragon. We went there in springtime.
when the 500 queer gnarled old plum trees.
which are supposed to look like dragons,
were one mass of blossom.
Under the trees, with their shower OF
fragrant blossom, were the few benches
which constituted the tea house The
trees were all stuck over with pieces of
paper containing poems, for these gardens
were the former rendezvous of the japanese
pocticsl Eis,ed-Fodd.
All the trees had messy trunks, and
nothing can be imagined more delightful
than this antique orchard.
Very different was the tea-gardcn we
went TO At Kobe on the night of the mka-
dos naval review. A wicket marked by
great square lantern of rather dubious
reputation admitted us into funny little
garden on the Chinese pattern, full of To-
tgs ponds, with artificial water falls and
quaint, tiny bridges. and islands, and pa
godas. aud the stone votive lanterns, Ishi-
doro, and Enthusiastically trained tir trees.
and little summer houses, which could be
rendered private by drawing the paper
sholi (shuttersl.
When orr rikscha boys knocked and we
were admitted a little gaily dressed mus
NEE led MS 10 one of these summer houses,
and was proceeding forthwith to draw the
shoji. We expostulated, because we had
gone there for the quainfness of the gar
den and not for amorous seclusion. The
expostulation was IN signs and broken
Japanese SO our musmee flew away and
returned with two of the tall iron candle
sticks, couple OF feet high, which stand
on the door and hold their candles on the
point of a spike instead of the regula-
ton socket, and soh. horrorsn 3
box of Bryant Il Mays matches.
She then dropped on her knees
anu waited to see what We were going 10
order for the good Of the house. We
ordered bottle OF Yokohama beer. and
sat down 10 listen 10 the tinkle of the
samisen waited across the garden and
wait for things 10 develop. We were re-
wsrded for our patience, because pres
emily the shoJi. which were slimmering
behind the lotus pond and its native
lanterns, We're dung open by an excited
ing and cyereating and sake, and altern-
aseiy making love 10 the gelShas who per-
formed before him, and getting irate with
them for smiling more afnorouSly at the
younger gentlemen Of his party.
We ielt grateful 10 him for feeling so hot,
foc his party naglc most picturesque tout
ensemble. The quaint Japanese summer
'sAase, with its raised i.eor. dotted with
sost futon tcQShionSD a couple Of feet
square, On which Sslaagted in a couple OF
csescents, party of japanese gentlemen
nth the regular Japanese banspe. before