The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-29
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
JAPANESE HOTELS.
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
washington, d. G.

! Washington, d. c.
JAPANESE HOTELS.
| Washington, D. c., Jan. @26.-Jap-
anese hotelkeepers expect a grand
rush of tourists in the near future.
and hotels are being spruced up to
inject the exacting demands of the for
eigTfer, according to HIS. Yamaguchi,
the Japanese hotel magnate.
Japan emerges from technical
state of war into an era of prosperity.
Its financial condition is similar to
| that of the United States. A great
] deal of money is in circulation, the
1 value of the yen equal to our half
| dollar) is 1essened, and prices are on
the rise. The visitor to Japan cannot
| estimate his expenses on the scale of
| the cheap Jap toys and trinkets sold
| in our oriental shops and ten cent
stores. He will, if he goes to a first
class European plan hotel, enjoy prac-
| tically all the Injuries of first class
the bill will remind him very much
of America.
| 1.-THE Japanese hotel business is go
ing thru a revolutionary period" says
Mr.. Yamaguchi, who is touring the
United States to learn innovations for
his three hotels. 'iJapanese hotels
have made progress in the last five
years that we never dreamed Of" he
continued. 81 have fifty tons of
things in New York now-machinery
and equipment-and 1 have not fin
| ished buying" ,
Most of these purchases. he ex-
plains. are labor saving devices. Jap
anese labor is neither so cheap nor
so plentiful as it formerly was, and SO
motors to freeze ice cream. chop meat
and wash dishes must replace hand
| labor, even in the orient where human
service is to be had at the lowest
rates.
| Five dollars a month is the present
pay for a hotel maid in Japan. To
| this the management adds food and
| clothing. which bring the cost of a
girl to about fifteen dollars. The Jap
anese maid fully earns her salary.
clothing and all. She knows little of
eight-hour agitation, but works stead
/ lily for ten hours, sometimes longer.
| The short-hours epidemic has reached
Japan, however, and labor is begin
ming to demand a fifty-seven hour
week in place of seventy-five hours or
longer. .
If the japanese hotelkeeper regrets
the high cost of labor, he is still more
downcast when he considers food
prices. Seaweed, rice and fish are
within the range of the ordinary Jap
pocketbook, but the European hotel
| is expected to serve western food,
cooked in French or American style.
The japanese hotel manager has to
consider butter at rs cents a pound.
and eggs at 5 cents apiece. He serves
them. and his rates mount in proper
| American fashion Six dollars a day,
! Mr.. Yamaguchi tells us is now the
price of a room in the big Japanese
| hotels. This includes meals, electric
lights, walters in evening clothes, a
regular bed, and degree of privacy
unknown to the famous native inns.
Mr.. Yamaguchi has given much
thought to the policy of the japanese
hotel. Most of the guests at the best
hotels there are Americans. and the
next in number are English
| These people" he says, do not
90 to Japan to see. American style of
| building, and still they want Ameri-
can conveniences. We put up notes
that shall have japanese effect, bdt
they must be simple, easily cleaned,
land sanitary-no elaborate carvings as
| in Japanese inns"
| Western food and furniture COM
bined with Japanese decorations come
as near to suiting everybody as pos
sibIe, he finds Mr.. Yamaguchi has
visited New York's largest hotels, and
those of Washington and White Sui
| phur Springs. He is now on his way
| to New Orleans, then across the con-
tinent to Riverside, Cal, and other
western cities.
The results of his study will be in
! corporated in his newest hotel, now
| being built near Yokohama. The new
hotel is to De concrete structure siA
stories high, and containg $50 rooms.
! A six story building is quite sky
scraper in Japan, and is only made
possible by the use of concrete, which
| best withstands earthquakes.
| One hundred and fifty room makes
a large hoteT' in Japan. Placed be-
side New Yori1s Pennsylvania with
1900 rooms, the japanese varietywould
suggest a flea beside an elephant.
Up to now, hotels of this moderate
size have been adequate, but a com
| pany is planning a $5,0O0,000 hotel in
Tokyo, which will be conspicuous for
both size and completeness.
The European plan hotel with its
marble Hobbies, Turkish baths. and
roof garden is frequented almost en-
tirely by foreigners. Japanese OF the
middle and higher classes prefer a
wholly native atmosphere,
"Once," Mr.. Yamaguchi says, we
| thought that everything from America
was good-and for the most part it
was. But American ways were not
all suitable for US, and now we return
to the Japanese ideal" So Japs who
travel about their islands stop at the
| native inns.
Westerners who visit the interior
and countryside also sample Japanese
hospitality in its native state. The ex-
pertinent is interesting as novelty,
but most travellers decided that one
dose of unauthorized Jap life is
enough.
Japanese inns serve native food with
an occasional egg or steak as a con-
cession to the foreign appetite. The
Japanese chef left alone, evidently be-
1ieves that the whole world is his
kitchen garden. and that anything that
grows can be digested. This harnesses
the traveller until he views each mix
ture with gloomy suspicion, usually
undeserved.
The guest is further reminded that
he is ina foreign land by the dining
apparatus which in a native inn is
always true to type. The would-be
Observation-Disclosures
SsThe George N