ENTERTAINING A GUEST.  Japanese etiquette prescribes the propriety of offering the caller a cup of sake and some eatables even at other than meal hours. Sake is a liquor distilled from rice, having a transparent yellow colour and a taste like sherry. It is never taken by tumblerful, but sipped from a tiny cup, which is now and then exchanged with other guests in the course of the entertainment. Good luck or some such happy significance is associated with sake, so that it is invariably used on all festive occasions.		CLOTH DEALER'S SHOP  Japanese shops are entirely open in front; so that when a customer comes to buy goods, he sits on the edge of the matted floor. Instead of standing behind the counter, clerks sit on the mat the whole day with a little square hibachi (a charcoal brazier) before them to wait upon customers. The photograph represents a woman making a purchase, and an old man, with an abacus, waiting on her. A girl behind the counter with a writing brush in hand is making out the bill.
前頁へ 次頁へ