y European traveller deprecates the change from their
native costume to our own.

Following for some distance along the bank of a large canal I reach the
village of Hakama for the night. The yadoya here is simply spotless from
top to bottom; however the Japanese hotel-keeper manages to transact
business and preserve such immaculate apartments is more of a puzzle
every day. The regulation custom at a yadoya is for the newly arrived
guest to take a scalding hot bath, and then squat beside a little brazier
of coals, and smoke and chat till supper-time. The Japanese are more
addicted to hot-water bathing than the people of any other country. They
souse themselves in water that has been heated to 140 deg. Fahr., a
temperature that is quite unbearable to the "Ingurisu-zin" or
"Amerika-zin" until he becomes gradually hardened and accustomed to it.
Both men and women bathe regularly in hot water every evening. The Japs
have not yet imbibed any great quantity of mauvaise honte from their
association with Europeans, so the sexes frequent the bath-tub
indiscriminately, taking no more notice of one another than if they were
all little children. "Venus disporting in the waves"--of a bath-tub--is a
regular feature of life at a Japanese inn. Nor can they quite understand
why the European tourist should object to the proprietor, his wife and
children, chambermaids, tea-girls, guests and visitors crowding around to
see him undress and waltz into the tub. Bless their innocent Japanese
souls! why should he object. They are only attracted out of curiosity to
see the whiteness of his skin, to note his peculiar manner of undressing,
and to satisfy a general inquisitiveness concerning his corporeal
possibilities. They have no squeamishness whatever about his watching
their own natatorial duties; why, then, should he shrink within himself
and wave them off?

The regular hotel meals consist of rice, fish in various forms, little
slices of crisp, raw turnip, pickles, and a catsup-like sauce. Meat is
rarely forthcoming, unless specially ordered, when, of course, extra
charges are made; sake also has to be purchased separately. After supper
one is supplied with a teapot of tea and a brazier of coals.

Passing the following night at Hakama, I pull out next morning for
Shimonoseki. Traversing for some miles a hilly country, covered with
pine-forest, my road brings me into Ashiyah, situated on a small estuary.
Here, at Ashiyah, I indulge in nay fir