The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-08-09
SOME SCENES
FROM JAPA
Honolulu Teacher Tells
Of Experiences
There.


Miss Erminie Cross, who left for ia
yam on the Mongolia June IA, accom-
panied by Miss Frances Lawrence, has
written several interesting letters to
friends here, relating her experiences
in the land of the Mikado.
Miss Cross is in charge of the Castle
kindergarten, and Miss Lawrence is at
the head of the Castle Free Kinder
garten.
| Miss Cross letters are as follows:
| Nishi Motto Kan,
| kyo bas hi Ku
| Tokyo, Japan,
| July 8, 1905.
My Dear Miss D,
Almost every hour of every day,I see
something that would delight your
soul, and 1 am constantly wishing you
were here.
Yesterday we left our very respect
able New England boarding house and
came to this delightful Japanese inn.
1t is like living in doll house and the
shoji between the rooms, opening onto
our balcony and screening the most
remarkable places for slowing away
articles of all descriptions, are
source of constant joy; no two are
alike, yet every one is charming enough
to be repeated over and over again.
Our wee rooms are truly made of paper.
We have a balcony of our own, that
overlooks a miniature garden contain
ing two stone lanterns, a, small lake,
messy rocks, dwarfed pines and bloom
ing azalias.
Our 'tatami" are soft and pure white,
we leave our shoes at the outer door,
enter by stepping up on the raised
floor, that is of a highly polished wood,
showing its exquisite grain. The stairs
are so narrow that one understands
the poets desire for reversible feet"
Our meals are the most interesting
feature of life at present; it is all so
much like eating in a doll house that
for once 1 am delighted that eating is
necessity Our little maid, or
''musume,'' prepares things on the hi
bachi, brings in live Goals in a brass
bowl and arranges them with brass
chop sticks in a most dexterous man
ner. We can buy such small quanti-
ties of food that even in spite of the
war tax, everything is very cheap. 1t
takes two sens worth of biscuit for a
meal and one sen you know is nearly a
cent, Z sens gives us cream for two
meals, whole spring chicken, such as
we had for dinner today costs SO sens;
eggs are 3 IL sens apiece, and every
thing else equally low: with fish, chick
en-, eggs, rice, lily bulbs, beans, green
vegetables, and the little extras we buy
outside, we find living at a japanese
inn real luxury. Our rooms are a
little expensive yen a day each-but
that includes the service of a maid, all
our charcoal, gas, baths and telephone, |
with no extra charge. Everything in
our rooms is Japanese except this table
and two chairs. these we have for con-
venience in writing; if a foreigner |,
should call on u.s. the first question
would naturally be Where is your
bed?' Very soon the little ''musume'
will come tripping in and in the most
cooling voice ask if she shall bring forth
the honorable bed. and then one of
those mysterious shoji will slide back,
the mats be brought forth and in almost
no time our most honorable beds will
be ready for our august selves.
We sit on the floor for our meals in
the most informal way, eating from a
table about one and a-half feet high;
OIura San kneels near the hibachi,
toastS the bread, replenishes the tea
and looks altogether winsome enough
to be put in a show window as a doll;
the poor child has curly hair, which is
quite disgrace in Japan, and her eff
forts to make it straight are truly
pathetic; she admires Miss F-'s
hair, touches it reverently and with an
Apologize look at me says Mix ko
Nikko
We are having really delightful
time; Mr.. Nj gave us a number of
letters to his friends here and they are
extremely kind to us. We feel quite |
gay riding away in jinrikishas TO thea
ters and dinner parties. and visiting old |
temples escorted by English-sp
il panese. Every one is most gracious
and as soon as we enter store some |
one hastens to speak to the foreigners |
We have met some interesting people |
in shops and stores and everywhere find