of Japanese
soil, and we were about to take our first ride in a Jinricksha. It was
very beautiful to hear as a greeting, "Ohio." As I had been told by
a Japanese student, whom I met in Cambridge, Mass., that this is the
national greeting, I was not unprepared as was a fellow passenger,
who said, "Oh, he must know where you came from." My height and my
white hair seemed to make me an object of interest. It was such a
novel thing to be hauled around in those two-wheeled carts, one man
pulling at the thills and another pushing at the rear. It is a fine
experience, and one which we all enjoyed. The whole outfit is hired
by the day for about a dollar, the price depending upon the amount
of Pigeon English the leader can speak. The first thing they say to
you is, "Me can speak English." We found the hotel admirably kept.

The blind Japanese are an interesting class. They are trained at
government cost to give massage treatment, and no others are allowed
to practice. These blind nurses, male and female, go about the streets
in care of an attendant, playing a plaintive tune on a little reed
whistle in offer of their services. The treatment is delightful,
the sensation is wholly new, and is most restful and invigorating
after a long voyage.

No wonder that so many of the Japs are weak-eyed or totally blind. The
children are exposed to the intense rays of the sun, as, suspended on
their mothers' backs, they dangle in their straps with their little
heads wabbling helplessly. From friends who have kept house many years,
I learned that the service rendered by the Japanese is, as a whole,
unsatisfactory. Their cooking is entirely different from ours, and
they do not willingly adapt themselves to our mode of living.

It is not my purpose to tell much about Japan and China; they were only
stages on the way to the Philippines; and yet they were a preparation
for the new, strange life there. But such is the charm of Japan that
one's memories cling to its holiday scenes and life.

The Japanese are really wise in beginning their New Year in spring. The
first of April, cherry blossom day, is made the great day of all
the year. There are millions of cherry blossoms on trees larger
than many of our largest apple trees--wonderful double-flowering,
beautiful trees, just one mass of pink blossoms as far as the eye
can reach. They do so reverence these blossoms that they rarely pluck
them, but carry about bunches made of paper or silk tissue