anese home is open to the foreigner
only when the foreigner is asked to sit on the floor and is served by
the ladies of the household. They kneel near the table and the maid
brings the dishes and hands them to the ladies, who in turn serve the
dishes to the guests. It is very pretty. I have reached the stage where
I can sit on my heels for the length of a meal, but I rise very
awkwardly, as my feet are asleep clear up to my knees at the end. We ate
soup, cold fried lobster and shrimps, which are dipped in sauce besides;
and cold vegetables in another bowl, and then hot fried fish; then some
little pickles, then rice, of which the Japanese eat several bowls, then
the dessert, which has been beside you all the time, and is a cold
omelette, which tastes very good, and then they give you tea, Formosa
oolong. We had toast, too, but that is foreign. Then we left the table
and were shown the rooms upstairs, which contain many pieces of lacquer
and bronze and woodwork, and then we went down and there was tea and a
dish of fruit ready for us. We had not much time for this, as they were
going to send us in a motor to the Imperial Gardens. But as the last
kind of tea had to be brought we were at the door putting on our shoes
when it arrived. This tea is strong oolong and has milk in it, with two
lumps of sugar for you to put in yourself. Thus we had been served with
tea six times within three hours.

It is hard to describe the Imperial Gardens. Read the guide book and you
will see that it is. Ten thousand orchid plants were the beginning of
the sight. We saw the lettuce and the string beans and the tomatoes and
potatoes and eggplant and melons, and all growing under glass, for the
Emperor to eat. Never saw such perfect lettuce, all the heads in one
frame of exactly the same size and arrangement, as if they were
artificial, and all the others just right. Why potatoes under glass?
Don't ask me. Grapes in pots looked as if the raising of grapes under
glass was in its beginning, but maybe not, as I was not familiar enough
with those little vines to know whether they would bear or not. The
flowers in the frames were perfection. Masses of Mignonette daisies, and
some other bright flowers I did not know were ready to put out in the
beds which were prepared for the garden party. We cannot go on the 17th.
A very large pavilion with shingle roof under which the Emperor and
Empress are to sit at the party is being built and will be taken down