The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-02-09

commercial life of the large cities. On
landing at such a place, inquire for a
''yadOya" Gnn) and. being shown one,
we meet the deep bows of the innkeep-
er, his wife and such servants as may
be present, when we proceed with one
very limited Japanese vocabulary, and
with unlimited motions to inquire in
regard to- rates and accommodations.
The few expressions that we have
learned have to do much service, such
as 'ikura," what does it cost; 'takai,"
too much; ''tabe-mono," food: ''ichi-
ban kisha," first train; 'ichi, ni san,
shi. so, etc one, two, three, four,
five, etc. The rates understood and
accepted. we take off our shoes and
enter, for to step on their clean floors
or mats with our street shoes is the
height of incivility. They use the floors
for seats, and what would we at
home thing should a stranger come in
and step on our chairs, settees or beds
with his shoes on? We are shown to
our room, which in almost every case
is of the standard ''eight-mat size"
Rarely are we assigned to a ''six-mat
size room. The matsswhich cover the
floors are 3X6 feet in size and are made
of straw about two inches thick, with
a woven reed grass covering. In the
shape of the rooms and the furnish
ings, one ideal seems to be very rigid
ly adhered to. There is always a sort
of indentatiOn or alcove in one wall
in which is hung a "kakamono" or
long scroll with a copy of some MASTER
piece Of Japanese characters. Partly
in front of this is set a fancy vase
with flowers or branches of evergreen
The other furniture consists of an ash
box or kettle TO hold the charcoal fire.
table about twenty inches square and
ten inches high. a writing set, a ,smok-
ing set a clothes rack, and as many
cushions on the floor as there are
guests to occupy the room. The writ
ing set consists of a small, long-hand-
died camels hair brush, a stick of
black India ink, and an ink-mixing
tray, all in a neatly lacquered box.
The smoking set consists of a
cigarette or pipe holder.
No wash boiler or pitcher is supplied in
the room, but all guests go to a COM
mon wash stand i'm the hall Directly
after showing us TO our room. the inn
Keeper orders servants up with a sup
ply of glowing charcoals and the tea
service. This latter is brought on a
richly lacquered tray, and includes the
little china tea pot, the cups and sauc-
ers, and a tea kettle with hot water
The tea kettle is set on a tripod over
the charcoal fire in the ash box. The
servant pOurs hot water over the tea
in the pot, and waiting q very definite
length Of time, usually about a min
ute, she pours out the tea into the
shallow Japanese cups and offers il 10
us. AS only Japanese food is served
at these inns, we usually prefer to pro-
vide our own lunch, though for the
sake of the experience, we occasionally
took the regular meals. These were
always brought to our room, and sit
ting on our cushions on the floor. we
drink the tea and eat the rice and fish.
or eggs, fried shrimps, vegetables, and
other "delicacies' which they bring.
We even make a desperate effort at
using the chop sticks provided us. al
though after the novelty of il is worn
off, we probably prefer to open our
lunch basket and get our own knives
and forks, as well as a supplement of
bread, butter, jam, canned meats.
fruits, etc. that we may have brought
along for emergencies. If at times be-
tween meals we desire tea, we call the
servant by means of the electric bell,
or i'm the absence of a bell, we clap
our hands like we see the Japanese do
When we wish to retire. we also ring
the bell or clap our hands, and the
servants bring in a deep roll of quilts
and spread them about six or eight
inches deep on the matted floor to lie
on and spread another for cover. This