The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-25
ROUNDABOUT IN JAPAN
By BISHOP E. E. Hoss

A +ha c1ose of my last letter l was approaching the city or hyoeo.
 reaching the station l was 1ortuna'e enough to find friends who greeted me kindly, and took me to the hyo'o no tel. a hostelry kept by Japanese OH 'nT e1Ieged American plan As far as l couid discover by actual experience there is nothing distinctly American about u except the scale of charges. That' al any rate, Is sufficiently high to Justily the epithet But the rooms are scrupu lously clean, and the fare, while none 'oo rich. is quite good enough for niall whose range of appetite is no srea.ei than mine. So register no corhplaii.ss, but rather put down my thanks TOT 'h1 civil and courteous treatment wnlcn received at the hands of the proprle.or and his servants. There IS serahse custom in Japan which had as well po mentioned here as elsewhere. When
 leave an ordinary hotel, you ale .Sa+ pected to tip, not the servants have waited on you, but the prupi ot biynself Whether he divides the p,o- nanss or paans all for his own gain, don't know. Not having learned uh- tu later of this unusual requirement. tna,. nov denarture without coming 10 ,ir,a If may be, in fact, that hotel after the American pattern does not ex- ract ifs guests to follow Japanese usages. On this point. also' aeaih confess ignorance-dense ignorance.
 Kvoto is known officially as Sajkie
 "The Western Imperial Capital, Juse as Yedo is now called both ofrlcialiy and popularly Tol1io, or 'Easterh m, nerial C.apital" This western capi.al uas once larger and more important lhaii if now js The present popuia.ion uo,s not exceed 45O,OO0, much less tnan nali flat of the neighboring city or osaAa and only about one-fourtn or lii... ,.a ,,s hiae of Tot<io. But in its situation, us nis- toricaI associations, and the spienoor of it's public buildings, both civii ana re,;yious. 1t stands in class by ltseil' far transcending either Of the piaces inst mentioned, or, for the Hde.ei VI
 that. any other place in Japan. IL iies fin the valley of the KamagaWa, , It. file stream called by courtesy a rlVer, and Is girt about most beautifully py ,,,a,ntains that rise sheer out Of the nlain to as great height as 2tVo rect. The day following my arrival was sun dov so as A. matter of course, dlu no sight-seeing, but went to the Jap- arese' Methodist church, and trieo to preach-tried Is exactly the rfgnt Wofu7- through an interpreter. This was my first attempt in Japan, and 1t was awk- ward enough. felt as If l was mak- inr an effort to shake hands with some body across an impossible river. Ihe vcung pastor who rendered my Engish into Japanese is @ graduate or Drew Theological seminary in the unlteo States. and seem to me, as well as l could make out, to do his work in sat isfactory way. But some Of the 1rlenus who were with me told me afterwards that he had made me responsible TOT at least A few utterances not quite Tn line with my fixed convictions. He had Q hard task, to be sure; and 1T he saw fl. to improve on the quality or my thoughts. it was probably his right 10 oo so only I should have been glad Tor him to discriminate between text ana comment. Then I should have been chargeable with no more than actuahy said? All this, am well aware, does not concern my readers. and may be sKippeo hv them with my full consent.
 When Monday morning came l ser our win the best of guides. to see the city and it's sights To begin with we went to the new Y. M. c. A hall recently erected by the generosity of MT Joni wannamaker, climbed three flights or stairs to the level roof. and then another one to the eupola, and surveyed the whole nrospect. The outlying country IS ex- ceedingly beautiful, but nothing couio he more drearily monotonous than iooK- i'm, straight down on an endless success ion of low tiled-roof houses. All the same we got our bearings for the days jaunt, and that was much. If time had been al my command I should have been delight