Japanese Memories | Page 5

weather. The wadding is made of floss- silk for the general wearer, but in the case of a poor person a cotton wadding is used, this being much cheaper, but very heavy. This winter kimono is used for a long period and cannot be washed, which is a great drawback, as it is very insanitary. According to a Japanese custom among the lower classes, the man had tucked his arms away for warmth under his kimono, the result being that his sleeves were hanging empty. As he ran towards us they were shaking loosely up and down, and to all appearances he was armless. I flew back, sickened by the sight, to be well laughed at by my fellow passengers, who had lived long in the country.
Another unique sight, and one which I never saw again, gave me a further shock. Many children were playing round the temples, with babies on their backs, as is the universal custom. One girl, however, had tucked her little dog under her kimono, and was carrying it on her back, just as if it were a baby, and as only the head could be seen, I thought at first it was a deformity, and was much horrified. The babies and children did not attract me on this first day; so many had sores on their faces and hands, the cause being, as I afterwards learnt, the need of food more nourishing than rice.
We reached Yokohama on February 17th, early in the morning, and some friends called me up on deck to see Fujiyama, Japan's most illustrious mountain. The sun shining on its snowclad slopes was a wonderful and never-to-beforgotten sight. I remember how, as my heart sank with loneliness and fear, the Psalm kept ringing in my head, " I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help " and often did I need it. One of the Japanese passengers told me afterwards that it was a good omen, when arriving, if the sun shone on this mountain. That it certainly was so in my case is seen when I look back upon the seven wonderful years I passed in Japan. In spite of the many difficulties I had to encounter they proved wonderfully happy as a whole, and were quite the most engrossing years I ever spent.
I now had to bid farewell to those under whose care I had been placed. Lord Sandwich, who had been a fellow passenger on the boat, realized in his kind-heartedness that my lot would be a lonely one, and I shall always feel grateful to him for his sympathy and support during his stay in Japan, where he made a tour of some months.
When the Kiatchou pulled up at the quay, I looked eagerly among the spectators, wondering who among them had come to bid me welcome. One of the passengers called my attention to two Japanese gentlemen, saying that they had in all probability come to meet me. Their black frock coats and bowler hats marked them as men of some importance, and as I landed one of these gentlemen immediately handed me his card, with his name, Mr. Hamada, printed in Japanese on one side and English on the other. We shook hands and he addressed me in English, but scarcely a word of it could I understand.
In this first experience, and for many months after, I found the English usually spoken most difficult to understand. For one thing, all the "R's " were pronounced as "L's." During the conversation with these gentlemen I was interrupted by two coolies who brought me a note. They wore dark blue kimonos, with a crest on their back, which denoted that they belonged to a private family. They had, it appeared, been sent by the British Consul to collect my luggage; and it was not long before Mrs. Chalmers, the wife of the Acting Consul, very kindly came to give me a welcome, and invited me to go straight to the Consulate. But as I was informed that we had to leave for Tokio by an early train, and as a luncheon was being given for me with the Princes at twelvethirty, at which the First Secretary of the British Legation and his wife were expected, I was unfortunately not able to accept her hospitality.
I was hurried off in a jinricksha to the station, and upon reaching it was given a first-class ticket to Tokio, which looked so absurdly English with " available on day of issue only " printed on it, that I would fain have kept it and not given it up at my journey's end.
The railway carriage resembled the inside of a tram, with two long seats for twelve persons on each side, and three at the top, in one