Norihiro Ishizuka, 70, stands alone, wearing not a crisp chef's coat but a samue, traditionally a monk's work robe, that slouches at his waist like a dressing gown.
She slips out and returns she's swapped her working robe and head scarf for something more festive and begins churning the brass-bound wooden tube that gives Tibetan tea its nickname goud-goud, from its glugging sound.
"I've done a lot of work with Robes in the last two years, just trying to round off his game.
Embarrased, I jumped in and tried to work the robe back up over her body.
Masai women, in their intensely colored and decorated robes, work in the hub, using embroidery skills on the 7,000 Westwood bags produced annually.
The shaven-headed nuns in traditional brown robes worked hard to make every flower, lantern and stone Buddha look perfect for the inauguration of the European headquarters of Fo Guang Shan, a Chinese Buddhist order, last month.
Wouldn't it be great to work in your robe, at the hours you choose, and never again have to pretend that you aren't reading about Michael Jordan's hangnail on your favorite sports Web site?
Its title seems calculated to provoke the people who wear black robes at work: "Are Judges Overpaid?" G. Mitu Gulati, who conducted the study with Eric A. Posner and Stephen J. Choi, said judges had not embraced their findings.
While the monks went to meditation dressed in graceful, dark robes, at work they schlepped about in any comfortable get-up; my favorite was worn by Greg, who, like some Zen cowboy rocker, sported a white cowboy hat on his shaven head, purple sarong around his waist, and Elvis Costello-style glasses, as he went about his chores.
In another work, Let There Be Robe, Nell has constructed an AC/DC-themed Buddhist robe, surrounded by crucifixes made from drum sticks.
