ORIENTAL SHOPPING.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20027, 8 September 1930, Page 8

ORIENTAL SHOPPING.

THE MORNING-TEA HABIT. Those New Zealandors who arc martyrs to tho morning-tea habit would, or. would not, as the' case might lip, enjoy a stay in Kyoto, tho old capital of Japan, said Miss Carol West-Watsdri, speaking at the W.E.A.. on Saturday night, and describing a shopping expedition in tho ancient city. "If you decide to go shopping m Kyoto you must bo prepared to have at least half-a-dozen morning-teas," she said. "It is really more like paying a call on someone. You enter the shop, and the shop-keeper bows very low. He ushers you in to an inner sanctum, where you are duly ensconced on a cushion. With legs crossed under you. Then, of course, morningj tea —although they do not' call it that i —is brought in. It is sipped from a bowl." Tho chief assistant of the average Kyoto shop-keeper, said Miss WestWatson, usually knew a little English, and it was not difficult to make oneself understood. The shop-keepers took a singular pride in displaying their wares, and would eo to much trouble* to see that every point of worth of the | article was properly ■ explained. : Con- 1 di'tions were different in Tokyo, however. The effect of the Westernisation of that city had made tho tradespeople more sophisticated.