knowing that in the end purchases will be made sufficient
to cover all his trouble.

The less aristocratic people are content to go to the stores themselves;
and the business streets of a Japanese city, such as the Ginza in
T[=o]ky[=o], are full of women, young and old, as well as merry
children, who enjoy the life and bustle of the stores. Like all things
else in Japan, shopping takes plenty of time. At Mitsui's, the largest
silk store in T[=o]ky[=o], one will see crowds of clerks sitting upon
the matted floors, each with his _soroban_, or adding machine, by his
side; and innumerable small boys, who rush to and fro, carrying armfuls
of fabrics to the different clerks, or picking up the same fabrics after
the customer who has called for them has departed. The store appears, to
the foreign eye, to be simply a roofed and matted platform upon which
both clerks and customers sit. This platform is screened from the street
by dark blue cotton curtains or awnings hung from the low projecting
eaves of the heavy roof. As the customers take their seats, either on
the edge of the platform, or, if they have come on an extended shopping
bout, upon the straw mat of the platform itself, a small boy appears
with tea for the party; an obsequious clerk greets them with the
customary salutations of welcome, pushes the charcoal brazier toward
them, that they may smoke, or warm their hands, before proceeding to
business, and then waits expectantly for the name of the goods that his
customers desire to see. When this is given, the work begins; the little
boys are summoned, and are soon sent off to the great fire-proof
warehouse, which stands with heavy doors thrown open, on the other side
of the platform, away from the street. Through the doorway one can see
endless piles of costly stuffs stored safely away, and from these piles
the boys select the required fabric, loading themselves down with them
so that they can barely stagger under the weights that they carry. As
the right goods are not always brought the first time, and as, moreover,
there is an endless variety in the colors and patterns in even one kind
of silk, there is always plenty of time for watching the busy
scene,--for sipping tea, or smoking a few whiffs from the tiny pipes
that so many Japanese, both men and women, carry always with them. When
the purchase is at last made, there is still some time to be spent by
the customer in waiting until the clerk has made an abstruse calc