| Show the tea nooses of japan a rickshaws and tea houses are the three institutions one associates with japan kipling has made the rickshaws hardly more of a phantom than the three horse car while sir edwin arnold and pierre loti have pictured the gentle with such exquisite finish that people ignorant of the meaning of the word a few months back are in love with her quaint beauty and ravishing smiles tea houses are simply inns or restaurants where the principal refreshment often the only one is tea in the cities they are the favorite evening resorts for there you can hire the gaudy geisha girls to dance and sing or play the samo binand koto between the intervals of love making she is a mistress of this art nara one of the most beautiful places in japan has no other accommodation and notice must be sent the day before to tell the owner how many guests he is to accommodate rickshaws laden with supplies start a few hours ahead the coolies who draw them acting as cooks and house servants during your stay stowed in these useful vehicles is all you require food and the utensils for cooking and eating it the teahouse supplies nothing but chop sticks fresh eggs and rice the little teahouse at nara was like a white parchment box with wooden corners and stood in the shade of a crysto moria grove in the heat of the day the parchment walls disappear mysteriously into the wooden comers then the entire house looks like a platform with high wooden comer posts raised a few feet fram the ground covered with dazzling white matting once a week |
