Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-03-17
A DINNER IN JAPAN
Troubles of a Hungry Man Not to
the Manner Born.
SoUATTlNG AT THE TABLE.

~A ~
of the Stranger In a Strange Lan2,
but From an Epicurean Standpoint
the Worst Was Yet to Come.
Describing an amusing experience In
Japan, Homer Croy in Leslie's Weekly
tells how, after arriving by train in an
interior town, in his efforts to find a
hotel, he tried to break into a bank.
Realizing his mistake, he finally, by
use of the sign language. was directed
to a real hotel, where after removing
his shoes, he entered. Then:
What interested me most was some
thing to eat, and opening my mouth to
its fullest l pointed in. They motioned
me to follow upstairs, but l held back,
showing that l wanted the dining
room, not the bedroom. Seeing a door,
which l thought must be the dining
ROOM. l pushed it open, but it was the
kitchen; SO. thinking that they knew
more about things than l did, 1 let
them lead me upstairs. When the girl
pushed back the sliding doors my
heart crawled down another step, for
there was only one piece of furniture
in the room, a seat that looked like a
two legged milk stool covered with
carpet. There wasn't a single chair In
the room and no place to hang my hat
or coat, nothing except a bare room
with a heavy mating on the floor and
one of my toes b%razenly peeping
through my stocking.
l started to sit down on the milk
me, while the servant girl made no
effort to hide her laughter. Dropping
down on the floor, she showed me how
to use the milk stool by sitting on the
floor and leaning n arm on it, like a
picture before Pompeii.
She took my hat and coat, and I won
dered where she was going to hang
them, for there wasn't a single nail or
hook in the room. Carrying them over
to the wall, she pushed back a small
sliding door and placed them on a shelf
and brought me back a kimono. She
motioned for me to get into it and
started down the hall. l got out of my
clothes and was just slipping into the
kimono when 1 heard her coming. l
called to her to stop, but she did not
understand. SO l wrapped the kimono
around me the best way l could and
tried to keep it together, for there were
no buttons ON it.
On the fool she placed a table and
on it a pot of tea. The table was just
barely a foot high, and there was no
milk or sugar for the tea, for these
she came with a plate of fish, a bowl
of rice and a little square box with a
bamboo tube in it and a bowl. In the
bowl was a glow of charcoal. Soon /
puzzled out that this was for lighting
cigarettes and the bamboo for dropping
the butts into. The first thing a Japa-
nese thinks of is tea. and the next is
cigarettes.
1 started to draw up to the table, but
1 could not find a place for my knees.
They wouldn't let me get near enough
the table to carry out my designs on
the fish. Seeing my trouble, the girl
dropped down to show me how. She
turned her feet back, with her toes
pointing straight behind her, and sat
down, her face in one direction and her
toes in another. 1t looked easy, but it
brought me up with a short breath. No
European can sit in such an attitude.
Putting one leg under the table, with
one bare knee glistening on the side, l
bent over the table to proceed with the
eating, but here l a up against a
snag. All l had to eat with was chop
sticks. Weaving them through my
fingers, l tried to break off a piece
from the slab of fish, but at wouldn't
break. | turned it over, hoping to
spring it. but with my wabbling sticks
l could only grease the plate. Openly
the girl laughed. 1t was better han a
picture show to her. She showed me
how it should be done-by lifting the
whole fish with the sticks and taking
bites as if it were "a piece of bread.
The next dish was something that
puzzled me. In a round wooden dish
come in a package of oatmeal were
white squares of meat in hot water. l
worked out a piece and ate it n
asked her through signs what it was.
She threw enough for a paragraph.
but that did not bring me light l
asked her again. and away she went
and came back with a book and, COM
ing up close. pointed to the picture Of
a horse! | had been eating horse meat.
Something in me began to sink, leaving
me weak and limp. Although she
brought me two or three more things
to eat, l waved them aside. My appe-
tite for the time had been appeased.