Cherry-trees are cultivated for their flowers, not their fruit; and when in early Spring, anxious looks are directed to the unfolding buds, it is to calculate the abundance of blossom that is by and by to gladden the eyes of the children, and not their palates, as with us.
The colors used for the sashes and trimmings of the dress of young children are exactly the opposite of ours; very pale delicate blue for boys, and the brightest scarlet for girls, being the correct thing for Japanese babies. This is apt to cause frequent mistakes to be made by foreign ladies when guessing the sex of Japanese infants by their attire, as judging by our own fashions, we should be apt to think that scarlet, indicated little boys, and pale blue, little girls.
The largest and most staring patterns are always used for the youngest infants, and as the child grows older, the designs on its dress become smaller and neater.
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Japanese umbrellas close exactly the reverse of ours, the material folding indide, and the ribs outside, when shut.
The pillows used by Japanese ladies are made of wood, not feathers.
Parcels and books are neatly tied up in handkerchiefs of silk or cotton, while noses and mouths are wiped upon sheets of whiteybrown paper.
Men, not women, make the finest silk embroideries.
The Japanese thimble has no top, neither have the scissors any holes for the fingers and thumb.
In running a seam, it is the cloth that is put upon the needle, not the needle into the cloth, and no matter what the length of the seam, the cotton is never broken from the reel until the end of the seam is reached. This method is a decided improvement upon our way of fastening off the thread and commencing again with a knot, many times in the length of a seam.
The Japanese always smile on imparting bad news. A jinrikisha man who had been an eye-witness to the killing of six persons, and the injuring of over twenty others by the fall of a portion of a building during a late severe earthquake, laughed out-right while describing the occurrence to the writer, his white teeth glistening all the while, and she has never known a Japanese exclaim “very sorry” to any bad piece of intelligence, but what the ejaculation was accompanied by a smile. This peculiarity does not necessarily imply want of feeling-it is more the result of education during many generations, like their politeness and their bowing.
When speaking, the Japanese use as little as possible, the muscles of the tongue and upper lip; consequently this is one cause of the great difficulty they experience in acquiring a proper pronunciation of the English language, which requires great mobility of lip and tongue.
They say “East-north”-and “West-south” instead of “North-east” and “South-west.”
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