Note 89 — Chapter XXII
Reading edition
Saris makes no mention of tea, not yet known to the Europeans, and which, perhaps, he confounded with this hot water. All subsequent travellers have noted this practice of the Japanese of drinking everything warm even to water. Cold drinks might tend too much to check the digestion of their vegetable food; at any rate, they are thought to be frequently the occasion of a violent colic, one of the endemic diseases of Japan.