The process of lacquering is represented as being a slow and tedious one. The workmen engaged over the lacquer in a boiling state, have their nostrils protected from its fumes. The varnish is the resinous product of a shrub called _verosino-ki_, or varnish-plant, and requires a tedious preparation to fit it for use. The coloring matter is mixed with it, by a long-continued rubbing on a copper plate; and the operation of lacquering is as tedious as the preliminaries. Five different coats, and sometimes more, are put on the article, suffered to dry, and then finely pummiced, until the lacquer acquires the requisite softness and brilliancy. Mother-of-pearl shells are inlaid and subjected to the same polishing process. The lacquering once thoroughly dry, it is impervious to the action of liquid heat, and although not a very pleasant idea to us, who are accustomed to the use of china-ware, the Japanese partake of hot soups and other dishes from vessels thus made. Boiling water may be poured upon the Japanese lacquer with impunity. The tea of Japan has been represented by some writers as being superior to that of China, but what we saw at the entertainment, was not at all comparable to that of Cathay. Before the warm water is poured on them, the leaves have a very coarse appearance, and from the tea when made there arises not that delightful aroma that salutes the nostrils when you drink the fine beverage at Acow’s in Canton; indeed, they are no doubt indebted to China for the finest teas they drink, and perhaps the finest silks they wear. One does not observe, in going about in Japan, the propensity for street-gambling which marks the towns of China—from the juvenile pig-tail playing with the vendor for the fifth of an orange, upward. The Japanese appear more elevated than this. When you notice playing it is generally in the house, and not gaming, but with a board and pieces resembling our chess. It was difficult to acquire much knowledge of the contest by overlooking; indeed, the contestants generally desisted very perversely during our presence. Our fleet-surgeon, Dr. Daniel S. Green, however, with his taste for chess, and an obstinacy of study which marks his investigation of every subject which he undertakes, deciphered the game of the Japanese, and this is the doctor’s account of it, from the best information he could obtain:—