Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-01

much? He names fancy price. You re-
ply, "Amarl takai' (far too high). He
comes down little. You name a price for
which you have no hope OF getting it. He
raises you, as If you were playing poker.
You refuse to be raised, and you both bluff
till you are tired, and then split the differ
ence. All the time You are paying your
riksha boy 1i2d. (worth only 3S:d. in de-
based dollars) an hour OF course, If you
understand the sorahan-the abacus of
moving beads on which he does his count
ing-you have him at your mercy.
He always calculates what a thing cost
him on his soraban, and If you watch that
you know where his bedrock comes in. He
thinks that foreigner is too big a fool TO
understand it. l was too big fool. but
Mr.. Lander, the Thibetan traveller. under
stood it. l had a better plan-not to ask
the price. l computed the sum at which
an article would be gift took 1t up and
made my offer. If the proprietor said no
contemptuously l put it down and told the
riksha boy to drive on to the next second
hand shop.
1 returned by the same route as 1 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, "Yoroshi!' (good), which is the
Japanese way of saying yes. They have no
proper words for yes and mo" 1t is not
polite to be too definite, and the oriental
never knows when he may regret a prom
Use. If the proprietor showed a willingness
to do business by only raising me little,
L made one fresh offer, supposing really
wanted the thing.
Before 1 had been living in Tokyo month
all the shops in my favorite haunts knew
me for man of my word, and also knew,
with oriental intuition If l really wanted
thing would only take 1t as bargain.
In this way purchases were made like
lightning If my price paid them, they
jumped at 1t; if it didn't, they told me their
lowest price and shook their heads sadly
when would not be raised. This shopping
from a riksha was fresh air and poker COM
bined.
Those were the most exhilarating days 1
ever spent. 1 adorned my sitting rooms at
Tokyo while I 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 al IN my
japanese room.
The Moderate Prices
Whether you are a lady or gentleman, If
you live long in Japan you have yourself
refitted by a Chinese tailor on the model
of your own Or your most recently arrived
friends garments. But 1 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
and basket-chair makers. If 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 so
impressed by the importance when the
English attach to well-known brands, that
with the name of n well-known British
firm. He sells excellent handkerchiefs at
fairly moderate fixed prices, also silks by
the piece; but foreigners in the know do
not buy silk by the piece, or IN shop
which has a door and counter: they buy 1t
by weight from a Chinaman IL they want
white or natural colored silk. or from
Nozawaya If they want the gay light Japa-
nese silk.
Nozawaya who lives in the street of the
japanese Venus. has most of his shop taken
I'D with the staircase of which he is so
proud and uses his floor for his counter; SO
YOU take off your boots instead of your hat
when you go into his shop.
The Kwankobas or Bazaars.
Next to silk shops transient foreigners
patronize the Kwankobas, or bazaars, Where
they sell rubbishy lacquer and sham soap,
new pipe cases and geisha girls hair pins
that no geisha would be seen in. These are
generally kept in temples, the hugest OF all
being In the Uyeno Park. at Tokyo. The
Japanese holiday maker is always buying
knick-knacks for his baby or his best girl.
A few foreigners discover the charm or
Japanese paper shops, where you buy en-
yelopes a foot long and two inches VIDE,
with cranes struggling across them, and
unfolded notepaper of absurd shapes with
q whole landscape painted on ii IN colors as
faint as water-marks They write to all
their friends. and think themselves des-
perately Japanese, instead of new chums"
of the deepest dye. The japanese writes
his letters on a roll of wrapping paper six
inches wide and many yards long. He be
gins on the right-hand top corner of the end.
writes on it with paint bruch before it is
unrolled unrolls the part he has written on
and, when he has finished, tears it Off His
letters are a yard long, that's why his en-
yelopeS are such a funny shape.
DOUGLAS SLADEN.