Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1883-12-06

The front of the house is entirely open
to the streets in the daytime. What
serves fer the Office is in the front room.
The kitchen is also in front. One will
nearly always see list of prices for
lodging hung in the neighborhood Of the
kitchen.
As you ride by hotel on a hot day it
looks very inviting. If the house be
large one, you will see room after room
stretching backward. In the center Of
the house is an open court, in which is
japanese garden, such as no one else can
make. Rockeries Of old and curiously
shaped rocks, plants and flowers artist
ically arranged, and sometimes little
pond with goldfish. The parlor is the
back oom Of the house. There
is really very little difference in
rooms, as none of them have one
solitary piece of furniture. The wood
work of a parlor is sometimes very
pretty, and there are pictures with some
times poem written in large characters
on silk, hanging on the walls. These
rooms are generally scrupulously clean.
The floors of all japanese houses arc COW
cred with thick straw mats On enter
ing hotel (or any house,, your shoes
must come off. A japanese never wears
anything heavier than a stocking while in
the house. Wherever there is any wood
work in the floor it is kept lightly pol
ished, as are also the verandas, which are
an indispensable accompaniment to a
hotel, as it is by them that the various
rooms are reached. The wood is so
smooth that it viii show scratch, or
the mark made by nail in the shoe, as
easily as polished table would do so.
On arriving at hotel you are shown
to a room, and girl waiter Immediately
brings tea and cake. The japanese Gus
tom is to give little present Of money
at this time; a greater or less sum, ae-
cording to the amount of attention you
may demand.
The prices of lodging are generally
fixed at stated sums for first, second and
third-class dodgers. This price includes
supper, breakfast and lodging. Guests
do not remain in hotel during the day,
excepting at the summer or health resorts.
By s o'clock in the morning the hotel is
empty. Meals are invariably served in
the different rooms. This requires a
large number of waiting girls.
Food is served on small, low tables,
just raised from the floor. The price of
first-class lodging with meals is about
thirty-tive cents. That is to japanese.
Foreigners are charged for room rent
and for ali tine food served. Last July l
put up at hotel over night. Ny Jap
anesc teacher was with me. He had one
parlor and | had another Our food,
rooms, bedding were precisely alike. He
was charged forty five sen for lodging and
room; was charged fifty sen for room
only, and in addition for every separate
item Of food. refused to pay my bill,
but finally was obliged to pay it, or
should have made myself great deal
Of trouble. Most hotels prefer not to
take foreigners at any price. Of course,
where we are served with chairs, table
and bed, we are willing to pay extra for
them. But you seldom find these articles
except on the main roads of travel One
must be tired in order to sleep on the floor,
lying on one thick blanket, with another
similar one for a cover.
There is no possible way to fasten the
room at night There are no doors like
our doors. The division between rooms,
as well as between the room and the outer
veranda, is nothing but paper; paper slid
ing doors, which can be lifted out Of theil
grooves with the greatest of ease, con
verting the house into one large room
have slept "a for number of nights in a
room, all four sides Of which could be
taken away in five minutes time, and
which of course could be opened by any
one. Strange as it may seem, there is
very seldom anything like robbery.
Things must be left about the room, as
one cannot put all his possessions under
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