In the Japanese Navy, as in ours, there are many messes—admirals being by themselves, captains by themselves, and below them the wardroom, gun-room, warrant officers, and petty officers’ messes.
The officers have three meals a day—
- Breakfast at 7.0 to 7.30 a.m.
- Lunch at 12 noon.
- Dinner at 7.0 p.m.
The food is alternately English and Japanese—thus, one day there are two meals European and one Japanese; the day following two Japanese and one European. Preference is probably towards our food, but sentiment retains the national diet. At the Japanese meals chopsticks are used. The staple of these meals is rice.
In the way of liquids, our whisky-and-soda has now as great a vogue as anything; but in all ships the national saki still abounds. This is a light wine made from rice—a sort of cross between hock and thin cider—disagreeable at first to most European palates, but for which one soon cultivates a liking. It is apt to play unexpected tricks on the stranger who imbibes it too freely. In the winter time saki is drunk warm.
Japanese tea is always “on tap.” It bears no resemblance to tea as we know it, being a strong green tea made with water just off the boil. Neither milk nor sugar is taken with it—sweets are, however, eaten beforehand.
So far from these national drinks being in abeyance, if a visitor in a Japanese warship elects to take one or the other in place of whisky or champagne, it is taken as a compliment by his hosts.
Japanese sailors are fed entirely, or nearly so, on European food. It was found that they could not work so well on Japanese diet, and they prefer European. They cook it, however, in more or less Japanese fashion, and always eat it with chopsticks.