Birmingham age-herald., 1895-03-18
AT A HOTEL IN JAPAN
EXTRACT FROM AN INTERESTING DE-
 SCRlPTloN BY A TRAVELLER.
In No Respect Does the Japanese Inn Re- semble the American Brand-Tea That Is Tea and No Mistake-A Bath That May Become a Boil.


 A Japanese hotel is built on the maze principle. Rarely is it more than story and half in height, as beflts a house which, in this seismic land, must some. times dance on a boiling kettle but it spreads over great deal of ground and has as many passageways as a gopher war ren. A business mans case of pigeonholes laid fiat on it's face would describe the ground plan very well. Outside the hotel presents, especially at night. an implaca- ble front Tho lower facade is a solid wall of cement with small doorway closed by sliding panel, and the oblong aperture above is so crisscrossed with gratings as to give it the look of a rural lookup or a ships brig.
 The manager of the hotel is humble and obsequious person, and so is his chief clerk. By his manner or costume neither is to be distinguished from the chef or the waiter. When a guest enters, there Is no imposing figure at the desk to swing register about, dip pen in ink and in- quire if the gentleman has any baggage to be sent.u Instead is a gowned, diminu, tive oriental, who bows until his body has taken the attitude of a carpenters square standing on end, and about him is staff which drops to its knees and touches it's collective forehead to the floor. Tho guest is then invited, in phrases that are full of apology, to remove his shoes. Having done this and being filled with thankful ness that his socks have not worn through, he is bowed into Q second room and then into third and perhaps into fourth, each apartment but little larger than a steamships stateroom, it's walls made of sliding partitions, with oiled paper win dows and it's floor covered with small squares of mating, underlaid with soft cloth and tackled down. One of these oubby holes is assigned to him for sleep ing and living apartment
 Very likely one finds it cold, for Japan, in spite of its gulf stream, is too near Si. beria to escape the rigors of the northern winter. The guest looks about for a warm corner, but there is no steam radiator, no stove, no fireplace He olaps his hands for servant, and with his phrasebook in. hand demands fire. Again the shufflingl footfall and the young woman with thes oblique glance. This time she brings a. brass brazier filled with burning charcoal. [ She places this on the floor, pokes the fire with two iron sticks, which look like knit ting needles, giggles as before, and in the lowest and sweetest of flute tones says "ChaS"
 "Cha," which has sound correspond ing with ''hah," is the first word one should learn in Japan. It means tea, and tea is as much the national beverage here as beer is in Germany or ice water in the United States.
 So the guest has cha. Tho maid, al- ready seated on the floor, takes dainty china cup without handle, and placing it on a salver fills it with an unsweetened, colorless liquid, which tastes as much un- like the tea of commerce as it does unlike the vichy of soda fountain. This is tea indeed-tea that is fit for the daimio or the mandarins-nay, for royalty itself; tea that the Japanese are wise enough to keep at home, letting the western barbarians pay their yellow gold for the acrid stuff that stains one's vitals black.
 When cha has been drunk, the proprietor attends He falls on his knees and wishes to know Eff gentlemans"-the generic name of the fair skinned species in native hotel vocabulary-will take a bath. At last there is something customary and fa- miliar about this hotel. By all means bath.
 The proprietor leads, walking sidewiso, through devious passages which have the narrowest of doors and the lowest of cell ings and finally opens the side of small room in which hangs horizontally ban- boo rod. This rod is q rack for one's clothes In the next room is the bath. Fortunate Is the man who has not pre- pared himself to expect porcelain tub, a tiled floor shower and corner wash- stand with nickel plated fittings, for he will not find them. Instead, there is great slab of rock to stand on and an up- right barrel, resting upon what looks like a block of granite, into which one is at liberty to climb and submerge himself.
 The barrel Is nearly full of water, which almost bubbles with heat There is no faucet from which to turn on cold douche, but pair of great, clumsy, wood- en buckets, filled with we'll water, are near by, and the guest, in the absence of a derrick, is privileged to lift them himself and turn them into his bath.
 With the bath properly tempered the barrel is very comfortable indeed. There are no exposed surfaces below the bathers neck to catch the chill of the surrounding air and gather goose pimples. One sits down luxuriously, grows cheerful in the all pervading warmth and even lights cigarette and sees visions of home in the curling smoke. But beware It is not long before the bather begins to suspect, that he is being parboied Was the water as hot as this when he got into itf Harki Is that the orackle of fagotp Is that chimney that comes up by the barrel and disappears through the ceiling? Heavens, the stone foundation of the bath is mere- ly stove furnace, in which is the hot test fire that can be made in space four feet squarel Your bath is what you might ! get at home if you should crawl into the |! kitchen boiler an hour before dinner time. [ -Cnr San EranCiScO ChrOnjc1e. |