JAPANESE ENJOYMENTS.

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 331, 17 July 1914, Page 6

JAPANESE ENJOYMENTS.

Stage management in Japan is somewhat eccentric. When an actor is killed during the play a man in black rushes on and holds a large cloak before the supposed corpse, who rises and runs off the stage. The scenes are never shifted, but the whole stage revolves upon wheels; while between the acts the children among the audience rush behind the curtain and play until the drum heats for another act. The performance begins at Hi a.m., and the audience provision them’ selves for twenty-four hours, curling themselves up on mats and smoking tho whole time. The Japanese smoke in a very peculiar manner. Their pipes are vei*y similar to the Chinese, opium pipes, having very small metal bowls with bamboo stems and metal mouthpieces, and hold only enough tobacco for three or four whiffs. They use a tobacco which is cut extremely fine, and looks more like a light blonde hair than anything else. It is of a very good quality, however. The Japs take a whiff of smoke, and -inhale it, letting •it pass out through the nostrils. They rarely smoke more than one pipeful at a time.