Letters from China and Japan

								

grafting the tea branches on to lemon trees. He has some of this tea
which was given him by the Chinese ambassador and so I hope we may get
a taste of it.
Apropos of this hotel you will be interested to know the manager who
runs the house has just come home from the Waldorf and from London
where he has been learning how to do--people. The exchange rates they
offered Papa seem to be an index of their line of development and they
are going to build more. This is the one first-class hotel in Japan.
At present they have only about sixty rooms or a little more.
In general, things are coming along promisingly. I should be through
lecturing by the first of April here, which is just the time to
begin traveling. It turns out a good scheme to come in winter, for the
weather, while not cheerful, is far from really cold, though it is not
easy to see just how the palms thrive in the snow. Japan seems to have
developed a peculiar type of semi-tropical vegetation which endures
freezing and winter. I can foresee that we are going to be busy
enough, and for the next few weeks your mother is going to have more
time for miscellaneous sightseeing than I. It is indescribably
fascinating; in substance, of course, like the books and pictures, but
nothing really prepares you for the fact that it is not only real in
quality but on such a vast scale---not just specimens here and there.

TOKYO, Thursday, February 13.

We have done our first independent shopping to-day. I can't get over
my astonishment at the amount and quality of English spoken here; it
is about as easy shopping in this store, the big department store, as
it is at home--much easier as respects attention and comfort. They
give us little wrappers or feet gloves to put over our shoes. Think of
what an improvement that would be in muddy weather in Chicago.
This afternoon is sort of a lull after the storm of sociability and
hospitality which reached its temporary height yesterday. Let me give
the diary. Before we had finished breakfast--and we have eaten every
morning at eight until to-day--people began to call. Then two
gentlemen took us to the University in their car and we called on the
President again. He is a gentleman of the old school, Confucianist I
suppose, and your mother was much impressed at being taken in, instead
of staying in the car, but I think he was much more pleased and
complimented by her call than by mine. Then we were taken to the
department store to which I have already alluded. Many people do all
their buying there, because there are fixed prices with a reward for a
discovery of any place where the same goods are sold cheaper, and
absolute honesty as to quality. But they also said that was the easy
way to visit Japan and learn about the clothes, ornaments, toys, etc.,
and also to see the people, as the Japanese from all over the country
come there to see the sights. There were a group of country people in;