How would you like,  says your Japanese host, at the end of a viciously hot summer day of sightseeing in Kyoto,  to take dinner in true Japanese fashion tonight

Charnley, Mitchell V

English

"How would you like," says your Japanese host, at the end of a viciously hot summer day of sightseeing in Kyoto, "to take dinner in true Japanese fashion tonight?"</p

Charnley, Mitchell

Digital Repository @ Iowa State University (ISU)

~ THE IOWA HOMEMAKER "A Magazine for Homemakers From a Homemaker's School" Published monthly during the school year by the home P.Conomics students of Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa. Price $1.00 per year. Advertising rates on application. Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice, Ames, Iowa VO.L. XIII :\i'OVEMB~~H, l!J33, AMES, IOWA NO. 4 Chop Sticks·· and Geisha . ·• • By Mitchell V. Charnley In a Japanese Restaurant: " HOW would you like,'' says your Japanese host, at the end of a . viciously hot summer day of sightseeing in Kyoto, ''to take dinner in true Japanese fashion tonight ? " Likely you are inclinjld to demur. Though you want to see everything Jan-anese you can .during your tour, any ex-tra effort when you're wilting in perspir-ation and fatigue seems too much. You'd prefer a ''European style'' dinner to-night, from a menu printed in English .. But your host, with native tact lllld thoughtfulness, has read your mind. ''You think it too hot,'' he pronounces. "But it will be cooler and more com-fortable than in the hotel.'' And so that is decided. You are, incidentally, a man-only men go to the old-style Japanese restaurliJlts. Westernization of Japan is rushing for-ward, lllld with it is coming the death of the ancient tradition that women are little better than servllllts; but in some places the tradition holc1s, and the restau-rant to which your host is to take you is one of them. So, in company with your ho.st and two or three other J apa.nese men, you set out for the restaurant. You could take a ricksha if you choose, or a ta.'li; it's only a short way, so you waJk. The en-trance fronts directly on the street, and looks exactly like dozens of shops on each side; just inside the doorway, however, you see a row of shoes ( both shoes like yours and wooden "geta "), a.nd you know that you must take yours off. Off they come, and you slide your feet into soft heelless "bedroom slippers. " Y ou shuffle in the slippers down a long corridor, its floor of h ighly polished l1ardwood a.nd its walls of slid· ing paper or woven straw mats. Some of the panels are pushed back, showing you squa.re rooms with floors of <' tatami;'' thick, soft straw matting; you don't see a stick of furniture in any of them, but you've been. in Japan long enough to know that J a.panese furniture is brought out f1·om big closets b ehind wall panels as it's needed. At the end of the corrido1· the little brown-skinned women senants, in ki-monos of soft colors, bow you into a somewhat la1·ger room than the rest; at lllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll lllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllil The w·riter· of "this nr·ticle, associate pq·ofessor· in t echnicnl jour·nalism nt Iowa S t a t e, accorn-panied a gr·o~tp of boys, win-ners of an essay c o n t e s t spon-S01'ecl by the A.rner·ican B oy, on a trip to Japan last s·ltml-mer·. H e is an associate ed,itor' of the A.mer·ieam Boy and the mt-thor of "Boys' L i f e of the Wr·ight Broth-!Yrs,'' '' Boy s ' Life of H erbert Hoover·," ''Play the Game : the Book of Sports" and" Secr·ets of Basebctll." His latest book, ct boys' story of pir·ate li fe on the Mississ'ippi, is now being published. 1111111111111 1111111111 111 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 its far end it opens onto an uncovered balcony overlooking the wide, placid Kamo Rivel'. As you step from the col·-riclor to the tatami you 1·emove the .slip· pers-anyth:ll1g fim1er than your stock-inged feet might harm the soft matting. And then, to your surpnse, you find your party removing itB clo,thing, while the servants bring freshly-laundered cotton kimonos. ''First,'' says your host, ''we will bathe.'' Now you know why he had said it woulcl be mQre comfortable here t h:w at. the modern l1otel! So you go to an adjoining bathroom, its square wooden tub set with its top only 6 inches above the floor. It is full of hot water, but you don't step into it. Instead you take a. big wooden dipper, scoop up water from the tub and give yourself a. kind of shower bath. 'fhen you soap yourself, and fina.lly get into tho tub for r insing. Servants hover around to Qffer you towels. Finally you aTe once more in your kinwno- and the heat m1d fatigue of a hard day are for-gotten. Y ou retum to the balcony, cool and pleasru1t in t he twilight; servants have preceded you with big cushions on which you are to sit, and little semi-circular arm-rests, heavily padded, on which you may lean. The proprietress of t he 1·estaurant, a small smiling woman in dark brown. kimono, comes to greet you :mel to ask solicitously whether you need anything to make you more comfortabk. And you al'O at last ready for a lei~­m·ely J apllllese dinner of so many courses that you lose count, and you are to find that you'll spend 4 l10urs at it! First the little servant girls- one for each member of your party-bring H clear, pleasantly-scented liquid which your host warns you hurriedly not tv chink. ''It's only a mouth wash,'' he says. So you wash your mouth with it! Then a steaming hot towel, wrung il1to a tight coil, a.ppearSr-this to give your face lllld hllllds a final coolil1g ''sponge bath.'' And finally the first dish of the meal itself i s brought-a smaJl ice-cold glass of a drink made by boiling roasted wheat in water . Soon the glasses are whisked a way, and for the first time tables make their ap-pearllllce--low little blaek lacquered· tables, one for each dil1er. On each is a covered black bowl, aJso of lacquer; be-side tho bowl rests a pair of chop sticks (brllllcl new chop sticks, wrapped il1 pa~ per as Bllllita.rily as the straws you ar e (Conti4!~ted 011 page .15) Chop Sticks and Geisha (Contimtecl [1·o1n page 1) given with your ice cream sodas). You 1·emove the cover, a.nd fi11d steaming soup in the bowl. And there isn't a. sign of a. spoon to ea.t it with ! But you watch the other guests, a.ncl find that they do the obvious thing-they drink the soup, and with loud and expressive inJJaJations at that. So you do likewise. And, seizing the chop sticks in your d.ght band and struggling to make them behave docilely as do the J a.pa:nese, you hold the bowl cloS<J to your moutl1 when the soup is gone a11d lift, or shovel, or push-whichever technique you prefer -the vegetables and bits of meat from its bottom between your lips. MEANTIME you've found your party enla,rged by the nppem·aJJcc of n number of Japanese women who kneel on the tatami beside the diners, chat with them-and gleefully h-y to teach you how to use your chop sticks! Like the ser-vants, they m·e dressecl in kimonos; but their kimonos m·e more elaborate, their stiff wide obis more colol"ful. And the younger among them have elaborate coif· fures, with heavy high coils of blflck hair a.ncl sparkli11g ornaJnents. 'l'hey are the geisha. gil-ls (only Eng· lish-speakillg persons add the word ''girls' '-the J apa uese call tl1em simply geisha, pronounced gaysha), and their function is to entertain the 1·estanrant 's guests. They a.re selected because they a.re pretty, or clever, or both; Kyoto's best-knoWll geisha is 'l'akeka., a woman of 45, a comedienne of no mean ability. You can't undcrstancl a word she says, but very soon your sides a1·e aching at her drollness. The soup finished, more dishes arc brought on, one at a tune. There is a stiff brownish-reel beru1 jelly, heavily sweet, which you eat with a single slim bamboo sliver (you wondered at first whether it could be a tooth-pick!). There is a dish of "hors d'oeuvres' '-1·adishes, pickled vegetables that are strange to you. There's a bowl of iced 1·aw fish cut i11 smaJl white chunks, served with soy sauce illto which you clip the chunks. There's a plate of sizzling fried eel, de· liciously toothsome. The piece de resistaJlCe is brook t rout. Golden brown, two small trout m·e brought to you on a square black lacquer tray; they m·e crossed diagonaJly in. the middle of the tray, and their tails curl up ill surprisiJ1gly lifelike manner. 011 one comer of the tray is what looks like a small green lime, crisp small leaves on its stem; you lift off tl1e top and find a bitey sauce illside. Altogether it's one of the most attractive dishes you've ever laid eyes on, and you hate to disturb it. Before you get a chance a geisha beside you takes yo.ur chop sticks a.nd, with quick, deft ja.hs, loosens. tlw THE IOWA HOMEMAKER bones from the flesh; then she siezes the head and neatly pulls the bones com· pletely out of the trout, a.ll without break· ing the browned skin ! Of course there's rice-a fresh hot bowl of it is kept on your t11ble con· stru1tly, and you eat it along with thE' other dishes, much as you eat bread at· home. 'l'here is cup after cup of hot g1·ecn tea. And there's steamiJ1g hot ''sake'' - Japanese wine-served in tilly cups not much bigger than a thimble, and kept filled by the geisha. As the 1neal pro-gresses, your host takes his "sake" cup, washes it i11 a bowl of water provided fo1· the purpos<>, and fills it from. the littlr chma.· ''sake' ' flask; then he passes it to you 11s a gesture of hospitaJity a11d friendship. And thN·e fu·e many other ·dishes-sea foocl, meat, vegetables, ''sushi'' or 1·ice cak es, sweets. 1t seems that the meal will never encl. Merunvhile you are enter-tainecl by troops. of waJ1Cleru1g millstrels -tu1y children, mostly-on the river bank below you; you toss small corns to them (if you've rem em berecl to put your purse i11 the capacious sleeve of your kimono) . And the geisha. entertain too -they sing sad, plaintive songs to the a.ccontpruriment of the '' samisen,'' an in-strument something like a manclolil1, or they dance slow, graceful clru1ces. At length the evening is ended. You get back il1to your conunonplace clothes, go to the door ru1cl slip yom shoes on. 'l'he proprietress, the geisha and aJl t he servants stand ill the doorway, bowi11g low as t hey say "sayonara"- goodbye. You call "sayonara" back to them, a11d if you're a linguist you add '' al'igato'' thank you. And you leave wtih a fe1·ven t certalnty that no elaborate ''European'' meaJ, in the finest modern hotel i11 J a.pru1, would ever taste so good or be so pleasRut. Girls Like Hygiene ( Contimtecl from page 5) have is the only one they '11 ever ha.ve seems to be an apparently new idea to some, who have a big desu·e to make their record more shu1il1g by bunrin.g the canclle·'s two ends. If they do awake11 ''with a bang'' when they find out just how they've been treatillg themselves, they're glad to be tolcl. Mm1y gu·ls fincl practical a pplica.tion for their trailring in the home. It's some· thing to be able to do such an ordinary thing as fill a hot water bottle and clo it right. Little aches and pa.ll1s ca:n often be relievecl if a handy girl around the house uses a couple of capable hands ru1d does a. bit of massagillg. And the in-struction in child care not only proves vaJuable around the home, but a number of girls have been able to strengthen the summer fi11ances witl1 this knowleclge. 15 The PhysicaJ Bducation Department cooperates witl1 Miss GouldiJ1g, ru1d its head, Miss Winifred Tilden, gives the girls the fine points i11 posture and the bony and muscular structures of the body. Miss Louise L 'Engle of the Foods and Nutrition Department stnughtens out the vitanrin difficulty and sees just how niuch each girl is eating. This is measured by a. caloric scale. If it isn't enough, she is tolcl a.bout it, and if they "still call her skinny'' it's her own fault. The same applies to the girl whose appetite just can't be controlled. Hygiene is ''fun.'' Just ask anyone who has taken it. And besides knowing all of the nice things to do and when to clo them, there's always a chance that you may meet up with the big emergency some clay, ma.ke a headlille and do somt:-thillg important, just because you learned how to dD it. bRek in a Jab at Iowa State. I The Newest I N FALL F OOTWEAR AND H OSIERY AT ~ __ Il DASHING YOUTHFUL SCHOOL FROCKS Party, street, and classroom frocks in a variety of Paris Modes $4.88 to $14.95 Coeds. see our complete line of new Jackets in glove leather, suede, and ·wool-Moderately priced. Gold Stripe Hosiery in all the new leading Fall shades-$1.00 to $1.65 BETTY SHOP Where Women Love to Shop 319 Main St. Phone 615-W Ames, Iowa 

Chop Sticks and Geisha...

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2535&amp;context=homemaker

Chop Sticks and Geisha...

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