Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-01-02
Life in Japan-A Hotel on the OTher side
of the World,


A correspondent, who went out IN the
United States steamer, Niagara, in company
with the Japanese Embassy, writes as fOl-
lows of hotel life in Batavia, Island of Java:
Now about Batavia and the hotel at which
/ am stopping. How many in New York
believe that on the opposite side Of the globe,
10000 miles nearer the sun, hotels 10 COM
pare with the Oriental magnifcence of New
York hotels can be found2 But such is
the fact. ID
Every thing we see here is so entirely diff
ferent from what have seen or ever inn
agined before, it is hard TO tell where or
how to begin. In all the imaginary wilds
of speculative fancy, had never dreamed of
any thing to come up to or compare with
Batavia. The place approaching nearest to
it in the East Indies, or, in fact, in any part
of the world, is Calcutta, and that by many
is not considered equal to Batavia.
The hotel at which I am stopping is the
Hotel des Indies, situated in the new or upper
town, some half dozen miles from the water.
This is a fair specimen of five or six others
within half mile of each other. My hotel
and grounds cover ten acres. The whole
ground, like the rest of the city, is one inn
mense forest of trees and canals. The trees
remind one very much of the elms of New
Haven.
Houses are placed 200 or 300 feet back
from the street. in front the yard is filed
with trees, literally alive with birds, and
every variety of plants and flowers. Every
house has a stoop cor piazza in front, on
which, mornings and evenings, sit beaut-
fully. dressed ladies and children. The houses
are white as the driven snow.. In front are
bird cages, elegant lamps, beautiful pictures
and steel engravings, handsome marble-top
tables, rocking chairs, lounges sc. These
articles are mostly of French manufacture
of the incest description.
One can ride here for miles ON roads as
smooth as floor, and see nothing different
from what | have described. At night the
city is one blaze of light from lamps--no gas
is allowed. The streets swarm with Malays,
japanese and Cinnamon, but no negroes.
They are very civil and attentive as walters
and generally honest Rooms are left open,
and articles of oil kinds left exposed without
being stolen. There are no beggars to be
met with in the streets. ls
The hotel at which l am stopping-the
main building two stories high, with an inn
mense piazza in Fronts connected on each
side by buildings like railroad depots, three
or four hundred feet long Each suite of
rooms contain room enough to make two,
/ three, ana even half dozen ordinary rooms,
such as weget at hotels in the United State S.
In front and back are lighthouses, fount-
aims, flower gardens, and out-houses for
cooking and for servants. Marble floors,
tilted roofs, ceilings from twenty to twenty
FIVE feet high, no carpets, and but few cur
| tains. -.f
Meals are served up in about the same
style as at the first class hotels in New York
The habits ofliving are quite different. Al
daylight coffee and tea are taken to yom
ruom; at eight same, with light refresh
| ments twelve, breakfast, and at seven din
ner. Coffee and tea are always ready, day
or right, same as baths No extra charge
take them or not, as you please. No business
is done in the street in the middle of the day,
on account of the beat. Nights and morn.
ings are cool and delightful; birds are sing
ing all night. =