The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-26
THE JAPANESE INN
Customs of Eating That Confuse the
 American

From the Chicago Daily News
 N1kko really denotes a whole noun-
 tain district rather than single place.
 put foreigners usually mean the vil- lage of Hachiishi and it's neighborhood.
 which is 2000 feet above the sea and
 hoios m its grasp all that is loveliest. and noblest of the soul of old Japan
 The village is a long one and lined
 With interesting shops where carved
 wood and furs predominate. On reach ing the end of the village we turned
 to the left up hill to the Kanaya ho-
 tel. There were no rooms to be had and none at the Nkko, the only other
 European hotel, so we passed on to the
 knoshi Inn, the best Japanese hotel. We were landed at the little front platform and promptly asked for a
 room Evidently the word was new to them, for they only stared blankly. In desperation I sat down on the platform. pulled out my Murray. hunted up the sentence: Have you any rooms?" and pointed to the Japanese translation of 1t. Doleful headshakes; none of them could read our lettering. I tried to pro- nounce it: "Zashiki wa, arimasu ka?"
 giving every pronunciation my tongue |could shape
 Either they didn't understand or had no rooms, for they only shook their heads. I insisted, "Zashik must have" and to make good by determination got up and started into the hall. Such shrieks of despair! A booted foot on the lovely mating! But we finally pulled off our shoes and followed our host in, crying in our hearts "Veni,
 vidi. vici."
 We were led up the most immaculate
 polished stairs that shone like mirrors.
 and ushered into our 'zashikf' at last.
 Two sides of the room were composed of
 sliding screens of opaque paper and
 kakamona hung as sole ornament on
 the third. The fourth side was all sliding window, with 8 sill half foot from the floor, and looking down into the most fairy-like little garden imag- inable. where little waterfalls played over baby rocks and wee gold fishes frisked in limpid pools among the weird
 and fascinating dwarf trees.
 The only piece of furniture in tho room was a table half a foot high, on
 which a "hibachi" stood, and the floor was covered with soft mats. After resting awhile we clapped our hands and when the slides were drawn back a little maid came in on her hands and knees and putting her hands to- gether on. the floor touched her fore
 head to them in salute and I prompt lily expended on her some of the Jap anese ammunition I had acquired: 70 naka ga sukimashita (Honorable in- side has become empty)."
 But we tried gestic ulations in vain and it began to look as if our honor able insides would remain empty when my better seven-eighths suddenly
 slapped his seat of memory in tragic manner and she at last understood where the aching void was, and dinner was finally served after much delay, but not before e had been urged to tick a bath" which we firmly re- fused to do, knowing that the same wa ter had to do for all of the guests To me it as like playing in paper doll house; it was the dream of life come true and was happy as lark, sitting cross -kneed on the floor and eating with chop-sticks all sorts of un- common food For my six-foot husband the experience was not so pleasing and he called in vain for chairs and fork. Our beds that night were soft mats and heavily wadded kimonos were brought for us to sleep in. We dis carded the little block of wood in- tended to serve as a pillow, but awoke next morning, one of us delighted and refreshed, the other aching literally to get back to western comforts. Wash ing in the morning was public per formance, and when we went out to visit the temples we found our shoes where we had left them, all muddy and wet from the nights rain-they had been treated just like native clogs.