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is made. Rather large crockery bowls are used. They are cleaned with a sort of bamboo whisk, and wiped with a green silk furoshiki, held and folded in a certain specified way. A bit of powdered green tea is put in the bowl with a long-handled wooden spoon, then water added from the steaming kettle in the middle of the floor, with a long-handled wooden dipper. The cup is passed to the guest of honor, who first takes a bite of cake, then drinks the tea in three and a half sups, turns the bowl a quarter of the way around, and passes it back.

We then went to see a Noh play, the story of a young prince escaping from his kingdom, and the disguise he undergoes in order to pass the frontier. The theatre consisted of boxes that held four cushions, with a brazier in the center, where one may make tea or smoke cigarettes as the play goes on. There was also a gallery, where chairs had been placed for us. The stage is in the front, right-hand corner of the theatre, and so highly polished it reflected the stiff brocaded costumes of the actors. The orchestra and chorus sat on the stage, the orchestra consisting of three drums and a flute. The words which are old Japanese, as incomprehensible to the rest of the audience as to us, are sung in a rather impressive chant, and all the gestures are stiff and conventionalized. It was a most interesting afternoon, making a picture of color that I will never forget. 

Then Dr. Kawamura said he wanted us to see one more temple, and we climbed a long hill, and many flights of stairs, to Kiyomyzu, which was beautiful in the sunset. Lanterns were lighted, priests praying silently in the dim interior, and the old buildings, with their ancient cedar-bark roofs, rounded at the eaves, and moss-grown, indescribably lovely. Nearby was the pagoda of Easy Birth, where women pray, and far below us the city with mountains beyond.

[[underlined]] February 12 [[/underlined]] - Kobe.

We caught a train at nine o'clock, that brought us to Kobe about ten-thirty. We were met by Nakato, the animal dealer, who took us first to his little shop in town, and then out to his house and farm. His father was the first dealer to import foreign animals into Japan, and dealt with the Hagenbecks forty years ago. Most of his stock just now is birds, and he is raising Manchurian cranes from one pair that he has had for 29 years. He feeds them Japanese snails "to make the babies". He also raises red, yellow and blue macaws, turquoise parrakeets, and all sorts of other parrakeets. The Nakato sons took us to Kikusui for sukiyaki that noon. It is a famous tea house, with each room different, strikethrough]] s [[/strikethrough]] one representing fisher hut[[strikethrough]] s [[/strikethrough]], one a geisha room, one decorated with cherry, another with bamboo, and so on. They have a huge collection of old Japanese armor. And there was a nice garden, with a little stream and stone bridges across it. Because we were going away, we ate in the room that represented a boat. A huge sail covered one end of the room, and a little porch that projected out into the garden from our room was shaped like the prow of a ship. 

In the afternoon we saw the Kobe Zoo, which is small, and chiefly interesting for the way in which it is built on a mountain side. It is really a three-story Zoo, and long flights of steps lead from one section to another. Here we were photographed with an indignant crane that was removed from its paddock for pictorial purposes. 

^[[Director Kobe Zoo, Nagoto]]