Omaha daily bee., 1902-11-02

up and made my offer. If the proprietor
said no, contemptuously, l put 1t down
and told the riksha boy to drive on to the
next secondhand shop.
| returned by the sam route as | went
out on these shopping expeditions and on
the drive back was saluted the whole way
by little boys running from their masters
to say ''yoroshii!" (goOd), which is the
Japanese way OF saying yes. They have no
proper word for yes" and mo- it is not
polite to be too definite and the Oriental
never knows when he may regret a promise.
If the proprietor showed a Willingness to
do business by only raising me a little, l
made one fresh offer, supposing | really
wanted the thing.
Before | had been living in Tokyo "A
month all the shops in my favorite haunts
knew me for a man of my word and also
knew. with Oriental intuition, If ! really
wanted a thing or would only take is as a
bargain. In this way purchases were made
like lightning. If my price paid them they
jumped at it; if it didn't, they told me
their lowest price and shook their heads
sadly when | would not be raised. TINS
shopping from a riksha was fresh air and
poker combined.
Those we're the most celebrating days /
ever spent. l adorned my sitting rooms at
Tokyo while / was living there with my
trophies, and when | left Japan sent them
all to England, in five cases large enough
for me to stand in. They are all in my
Japanese room.
Whether you are a lady or a gentleman,
if you live long in Japan you have yourself
reftted by a Chinese tailor on the model OF
your own or your most recently arrived
friends garments. But l must not discuss
the humors of dealing with Cock Eye d
Co., who keep their word and excellent ma
terials; nor those of the camphor wood box
and basket chair makers. If a foreigner
has only one day in Yokohama and goes to
only one shop, it will be to the silk hand
kerchief shop of one Shobey, who was SC
impressed by the Importance which the
English attach to well known brands tina
he used to label his boxes of handkerchief
with the name of a well known British
firm. He sells excellent handkerchiefs a.
fairly moderate fixed prices, also silks by
the piece; but foreigners in the know dc
not buy silk by the piece, or in a shol
which has a door and counter; they buy
it by weight from a Chinaman If they wan
white or natural colOred silk, or from NoZa
waya If they want the gay light japanese
silk,
Nozawaya, who lives in the street of tn
Japanese Venus, has most of his shop takel
up with the staircase of which he is 81
proud, and uses his floor for his counter; s.
! you take off your boots instead of your ha
when you go into his shop.
Next to the silk shops, transient foreign
ers patronize the KwankObas, or bazaars
/, where they sell rubbishy lacquer and shar
, soap, new pipe cases and geisha girls hair
q pins that no geisha would be seen in
o These are generally kept in temples, tn
hugest Of all being in the Uyeno park a
p Tokyo. The Japanese holiday maker is al
n ways buying ~knick -knacks for his baby G
p his best girl.
h A few foreigners discover the charm {
., japanese paper shops, where you buy en-
velopes a foot long and two inches wild,
g with cranes struggling across them, an
r unfolded notepaper of absurd shapes wit
a whole landscape painted on it in color
4 as faint as water-maTks They write to a
t their friends and think themselves despel
@ ately japanese, instead OF new chums"
ii the deepest dye. The japanese writes h
/. letters on a roll of wrapping paper 81
- inches wide and many yards long, He b.
o gins on the Tight-hand top corner OF II
It end, writes on it with a paint brush bo
% FOra a 10 unrollpd unrolls the mart he N;