Letters from China and Japan

								

pronounced it right, and the boy turns around and says, "Do you want
ze Imperialee Hoter?" And we say, "Yes" (you bet), and the fellow
says, "Eet is ze beeg building down zere," so we wade along some more
with all the clog walkers looking at our feet till we come to this old
barn of a place where we are paying as much as at a Fifth Avenue
hotel, and get clear soup for dinner. Just like any one of those
old-fashioned French places where they measure out with care all they
give you, and where the head is a most distinguished and conspicuous
jack-in-the-box who jacks at you all the time, bows every time you go
down the hall and all and all and all. It is all so screamingly funny.
The shops are nearly as big as our bedrooms at home with enough space
to step in and leave your shoes before you mount the takenomo and walk
on the mats. We could not go into any shop, except the foreign book
stores, because we were too dirty and had no time to unlace our shoes
even if we wanted to wear out our silk stockings. We shall have some
nice striped socks before we begin to do shopping. I am possessed with
the notion of trying the clogs.

Tuesday, February 11 (TOKYO).

To-day is a holiday, so we cannot go to the bank, but we can go to a
meeting where they will discuss universal franchise and
democratization generally. The Emperor is said to be indisposed, so he
will not come to the celebration. His illnesses, like everything else
about him, are arranged by the ministers and mistresses, as near as we
can make out.
We are having so many interesting experiences and impressions that it
is already difficult to catch up in writing them down. Yesterday
morning we went to walk and in the afternoon we were taken out in a
car so that we have got over the first impression of the surface. We
saw the university and the park where the tombs of the shoguns are,
and those tombs are wonderful, just to look at from the car. About
to-morrow we may be able to go to the museum. The rows of stone
lanterns are impressive beyond anything I had imagined; hundreds of
them which must have given to the nights they illuminated a
wonderfully weird spectral look.
It is not fully true that the Japanese are not interested in their
history. At least the educated are, as in any other country. A friend
told us about the revival of interest in the tea ceremony. He is going
to arrange for us to go to one somewhere, he did not say where, but it
will be accompanied by a grand dinner and will express the
magnificence of the new rich as well as the taste of old Japan, to
judge from the impressions he gave us. He told us of an old Chinese
cup for the tea ceremony that a certain millionaire has recently paid
160,000 yen for. That means $80,000. He says the collectors have
various sets, and each set will often represent a million dollars.
This particular bowl is of black porcelain with decorations of bright
color. He told us also of a tea which is now produced in China by