Part 16

=October 16.=--At work all the morning, lunch with the Faculty at the Goten, and then at work all the afternoon. The fossils proved so enticing that though I had worn a traily frock all day intending to go to the Belgian Legation garden party, when it came to the point the fossils won, and I didn’t go. In the evening I cycled down to dinner at our Embassy.

When once one makes up one’s mind to a cycle, one can even go out to dinner on it. I wondered, however, what the footman thought when he had to lift it into the Embassy hall in case of thieves getting it in the garden (I was told he has a brother who is an attaché at the French Embassy! The Japanese are very quaint that way--one Count or Baron or other is driven up to the door every day by his own brother as a coachman). Thanks to the unmoved countenance of flunkeydom, added to the immobility of the Japanese, I could sail into the dining-room, past the same man, trailing a pink silk skirt with apparent dignity.

=October 21.=--Fossils all day. I cycled round on my way home and paid my dance calls. The streets, particularly in the neighbourhood of the _Ginza_ and the station, are now very gay and crowded for the American Fleet, of which a really enormous fuss is being made. There are arches, and bands, and processions, and all manner of things all over the place. Bands of school children go about with flags, and--for the first time since I have been in Japan--I was insulted on my cycle by grown men, not once, but six times in the course of half an hour! Not badly, but in a coarse rude tone I was called out to, and one madman waved a lantern suddenly in my face on the cycle and nearly upset me. I suppose they are over-excited, for everywhere the echo rings with protestations of undying devotion to the Americans, for one of whom I would naturally be taken.

=October 22.=--A horribly wet morning, but by midday a lovely sun came out, and it felt almost like midsummer. When I got to the Embassy garden party (it was given to welcome Admiral Sperry) I found it had been postponed in the morning, but as the weather was now so lovely, it was put on again. That is to say, it was half on and would be repeated to-morrow. So we had one of the bands, and quite a lot of the American officers and other people turned up. The chief sight was seeing Admiral Sperry and Admiral Togo sitting side by side looking on at a kind of sword-dance. The dance itself was very dull, as all Japanese posture dances are unless you understand them intimately, but there were some sparks when the swords clashed, and one of the swords broke by accident, which was entertaining. It was rather wonderful the way the dancer to whom this happened kept his countenance, and put it in the sheath at the appointed time as calmly as if it hadn’t been a mere stump.

The American officers were a sad disillusionment. One fancies good class Americans must be all like the soulful adoring youths at the feet of the Gibson girls, but they aren’t--at least those officers aren’t. In fact, though they would be mad to hear it, they were mostly not easy to distinguish from Japanese when both stood with their caps down over their eyes, as they always wear them, except that the Americans looked the less smart owing to the untidy appearance of their small squash caps. So many of them were short and insignificant. Admiral Sperry, though not imposing or impressive in any way, seemed pleasant and keen, and was tall.

=October 23.=--Lunch at the Goten, with quite a lot of foreign visitors,--two Russians, a geologist and a botanist, and two Germans interested in law or some such thing. I hear we are to have Sven Hedin, which will be really interesting. I hope I shall see him.

=October 24.=--The Fleet left to-day, and the following was put in the paper: “Gentlemen will not be allowed on the platform except in frock-coats and silk hats; ladies in corresponding dress.”

The passion of the Japanese for the silk hat is intense, fervid, one might almost say it has become a fetish. But _we_ have hitherto been spared a corresponding dress!

Think of its parallel in England--no gentleman allowed into Euston Station without a silk hat.

After working at fossils all morning (as you can imagine, I didn’t go to the station) I went along to preside at a Debate at Baroness d’A----’s. This Debate was on marriage. I had asked a very cultured missionary lady, with silver hair, to take a literary debate. No, said she, she was not interested in that, but if she might propose that “The unmarried life is the happier, then she would take the Debate.” So we had quite an amusing Debate, fortunately rather superficial.

The people here are not in touch with all our modern types, and I did not need to speak against the ranting type, who rave against men and marriage and prove themselves deformed. No, there were no such “problem” people here, only young spinsters who didn’t dare to say they would like to be married, and wives who didn’t dare or wish to speak against marriage, and elderly spinsters who were clever enough to be amusing without touching a fundamental note. The ranting type seems mercifully to be confined to big communities; I suppose it is an inevitable result of city life, where some must sterilise, but it is a pity when they have the power to write books.

In the evening I had a few of the Japanese botanists to dinner, and they seemed pretty well amused, or were sufficiently polite to pretend to be so. Fortunately they are not accustomed to violent amusement, nor have they the jaded palate of the European city dweller, so they are less exacting, for which I am thankful, as it was the first dinner-party I have given.

=October 25.=--In the afternoon I went to tea with Professor _F----_ and met Professor R---- from Russia, and others. We taught Professor R---- to use chop-sticks, and we examined dwarf trees, of which Professor _F----_ has some beautiful specimens. In a room in which dwarf trees are displayed everything must be specially simple and dignified. If the tree is not in the _tokonomo_, for instance, the screen behind it must be white, pure white, not even flecked with gold-dust. And when one sees it arranged rightly, one realises the true rightness of it, and the beauty seems to stand out clearly, with the outline of the tree against the background of white. I love more and more the simple culture of the old style Japanese when in harmonious surroundings. Though they have quite lovely and valuable dwarf trees in Kew, they are lost in the greenhouse with all the other things; the rays and suggestions from the other plants around them intermingle and conflict, till they produce a grey haze of mist in which the spirit of beauty envelops herself and is invisible; but if you place but one of those trees in the right place, she steals out and is radiant before you.

=October 28.=--A long quiet day of work. While we were at lunch an envelope was brought to Professor _F----_ containing 75 sen, partly in copper coins. It was a present from the Emperor! When I had done laughing he explained to me the reason. It is soon the Emperor’s birthday, and therefore all Government officials are expected to go to the palace to pay their respects, when they would receive a cup of _saké_ and some light food. But to go one must have a grand gold-laced uniform, and many of the younger men don’t have it, also if every one went there would be an impossible crush, so that only the seniors go. The juniors now dispense with the formal letter stating that they are ill, but continue to receive the price of a cup of _saké_ from the Emperor! Though the sum may seem ridiculous, it is an interesting survival, and as there are about ten thousand officials in the country, it is no joke for the Emperor!

=October 30.=--An uneventful day lunch at the Goten. I had been invited to go to the Peeresses School for their sports, as the Emperor was to be there, and I wished to see the school and the Royalty watching sports--but was prevented by the fossils.

=October 31.=--Frightfully cold and raining in torrents. I lit the lamp in my room in the Institute to try to warm me a little, but with lots of thick clothes as well, I shivered all day. In the evening I put on a fur-lined coat over my gown, and even then was too cold to write. There will be floods again if the rain continues so torrential.

=November 1.=--Gloriously sunny and clear. In a tussore silk frock I sat all day writing in my garden. One need never despair during rainy weather in Japan,--it doesn’t leave one in the clouds for long. Fresh green peas were brought in the pods for my approval, which they naturally got. There is a kind of second spring in November, and the roses are blooming in beauty. In the evening I went up the mound near me and looked down on the tree-covered country below, where curled white mists between the black trunks. Straight opposite stood Fuji mountain, with a coronet of golden clouds and a cloak of crimson, while in the deep blue behind began to peep out tiny stars.

=November 3.=--A national holiday, so the laboratory was locked up, and I couldn’t get work done there.

In the afternoon I went to a tea-party with friends. Coming home we did a lot of shopping, and had quite a festive time, as there was a kind of fair on and the streets were gay with lanterns and a bright crowd, and the shops full of the most delightful trifles. This street near our hostess is one of the best for shopping, as it is little frequented by foreigners and is a well-known shopping place for the Japanese. We went into both the _kankobas_ (a kind of open bazaar I have described before), and I only wished for a bottomless purse. Nevertheless one must not run away with the idea, so often suggested by tourists, that _all_ the native Japanese things are artistic and beautiful. Many are, but by far the greater number are not, and even when prepared to buy I often have to wait long and examine many stalls before finding the thing I want.

=November 4.=--Fossils all day. On the way home I called at the American Embassy--had the good luck to find the O----s alone.

I often wish Mrs. O---- were not the Ambassadress, as she is so charming and beautiful, I should like to know her intimately, but as it is, of course she is always overrun with people.

=November 7.=--Work in the morning. In the afternoon I went to a garden party at a Japanese Professor’s. He has a pretty garden, with houses in it for the various scions of the family. He had a lottery and all the guests had presents, some very pretty Japanese things. There were a number of remarkably bright and attractive little Japanese girls in brilliant kimonos, and some pretty maids a little older. At 4 we sat down to a typical “first class party” tea--cold meats of a dozen kinds, savoury jellies, hot soup, cakes, sweets, fruit, beer, ginger-beer and tea (at the end) were served to every one. And yet if you ask a Japanese about the old customs of the country he will assure you that simplicity and frugality is the chief note in their entertainments, and so it is and was in the pure Japanese style, but when they touch anything “foreign” they must outdo the foreigners.

We were placed curiously at the tables, the Japanese ladies put _indoors_, where the room opens wide on the garden, the foreign ladies in the garden, and the gentlemen somewhere else in the garden, quite out of sight of the ladies! And the men were perhaps quite happy that way, for they could smoke in peace.

The weather is lovely, and one could not imagine it was really November, but for the swiftly waning light. The roads riding home are terribly dark, but fortunately fewer children play in them at night than by day.

=November 8.=--I rode over to Shingawa to lunch with the D----s (he is Naval Attaché). They haven’t been in the house long, but they had brought out with them treasures given to their parents years ago, and so have many gems of Japanese carving and porcelain. The house is pretty within, and it was nice to meet some one who had recently come from home.

Afterwards I rode over to Hongo--an awful way across the country and city, to dinner with Professor _S----_, his wife and family. He had his lovely dream of a garden lit by a brilliant full moon, and the translucent stone lanterns among the trees. Roses grew on the trees, huge dainty ones, and sweet-scented rose-hearted buds. It was a vision of perfect beauty to be remembered. Afterwards he and his brother, who is an excellent singer, sang me some _Nō_ songs, and everything was so harmonious, so lovely, so simply dignified.

=November 9.=--At work on fossils all day after my lecture, which was the last. Professor _S----_ spoke and “made me blush,”--his English is simply wonderful, I know few Englishmen who speak better,--the substance of what he said for me was more than kind, though I must deduct something from him, as from all Japanese, for, whatever faults they may have, they really are polite to people they know.

=November 11.=--Fossils all day. In the evening the great event--my farewell dinner from the University, given at the famous Maple Club. A farewell dinner, and they all know quite well that I do not sail till January! The reason it is given now is partly to thank me for the lectures and partly because of the weather! As the entertainment is to be true Japanese style, in a Japanese house, it is deemed necessary to have it before it becomes really cold.

I have looked forward very much to this party, for it is quite one of the treats of Tokio to be entertained at the Maple Club. My hosts were, of course, all Japanese, the University Professors, among them were a few Japanese ladies, one of whom I knew pretty well, the daughter of Baron _H----_. I was the only foreigner.

The rooms are splendidly large, about 100 mats when all opened out. It took me quite a long time to count up the mats, for I am rather stupid at it. In an ordinary room one can estimate immediately whether it is an 8 or 10 mat room, by the way they are placed, and without any counting. We were seated all round the edge of the end room, I in front of the _tokonomo_, as the chief guest. It left a large space in the middle to start with, but very soon the maids began to bring dishes of things to eat, and every guest had the same placed before him on the ground; as dish after dish was placed in front of us all, each in the same relative position before every guest, there grew up a symmetrical border pattern all round the room, which slowly encroached on the centre.

It made all moving about very difficult, really impossible for one with skirts, which most of us had, as a number of the men came in _hakama_ (stiff silk divided skirts worn by men when dressed for ceremony). Moving about would not have been at all out of place, as the feeding was very intermittent, and it was only towards the very end of the evening that they brought the rice. While we were eating, a kind of superior geisha danced; three girls dressed in ancient-time costumes performed an old well-known dance supposed to bring good luck. Afterwards they brought in a red-arched bridge and some flowers, and did the butterfly dance--two red-and-white and two white, in such lovely embroidered dresses with butterfly wings on their backs, which they opened and shut. The whole effect was charmingly pretty. They said they were the same girls who waited on us earlier, but I did not recognise them. All the rooms and dishes and lacquer were ornamented with maple leaves, and they brought sweet cakes in the form of coloured maple leaves, which we ate before dinner and through the evening.

Professor _S----_ made a speech which _really_ made me blush. He, in the goodness of his heart, may have meant what he said, but I can’t believe it voiced the views of any of the others. Then they all _banzaied_, and drank my health. Of course, I had to make a reply speech--after one of the men who had come to the lectures thanked me,--and read a poem he had made about me--it is a thousand times harder to make an “after-dinner-return-thanks” speech than a long scientific lecture. I did it somehow. Later, I proposed the health of the future of Japan, amid hearty _banzais_--but always feel a miserable failure at such things.

Baron _K----_ sat next me--he had just returned to Tokio, because to-morrow the great Sven Hedin is going to arrive, and he is on the reception committee. The dinner began at 5.30 and I went at 9.30, though I could have enjoyed it still longer, for the border of dishes had begun to melt, and we could move about a little. There is a beautiful garden, too, with a view of the sea in day-time, the Club being situated on the crest of the hill above Shiba Park. The whole building and atmosphere of the place is very charming, and I enjoyed the evening greatly.

I was shopping in the _Ginza_--the so-called “Regent Street” of Tokio. I need hardly say that the name is given by the Japanese. Paper was one of the things I needed. It is curious, in this land where so much is made of paper, how very difficult it is to get anything like our strong brown paper for parcels, or our letter paper, or our manuscript paper. The native sheets are unglazed, and though tough in one way are useless for parcels unless one gets oil paper, and even then the sheets are very small and are pasted together.

=November 16.=--Sven Hedin lectured to-day at the University, and I had been asked to tea previously to meet him before it. He is rather short, but sturdy, and very bronzed and rosy. His face is narrow, his eyes close together, and looking still closer, as he is evidently short-sighted, and has an exceptionally deep vertical groove between them. He gave me the impression of being a genial, friendly, hardy, _pushful_, but not a great man. The only other lady there was Madame G----, the mother of the French Ambassador, whom I think I have mentioned before. She was very gracious, as she always is, but cannot speak a word of anything but French. We all walked over to the Lecture Hall from the Goten--a slow and solemn procession. About the only people who spoke were Hedin and Madame G----, a few people said a sentence or two to me, but even the genial Dean seemed to be overpowered by the funereal solemnity of the march. I had my cycle, and the French Ambassador helped me to haul it up the steps! His only remark was, “Très moderne,” which was very moderate of him. In the lecture I was placed in the front row, between Madame G---- and Baron _K----_, and got into nice hot water! The poor lady couldn’t understand a word of the lecture, and Hedin often said things to make us laugh, and she could not join in, so now and then I translated a word or two for her. This upset Baron _K----_, who nudged me violently from the other side, so I had to stop, but then I hurt the lady, for I didn’t dare answer her further questions. After the lecture, when Hedin said he knew we were all interested, because no one spoke a word, and that was the sure test of interest, I felt worse and worse!

Hedin was received with tremendous applause, and spoke for two hours or more. His account was most interesting, though once or twice we felt he “drew the long bow.” His English was fluent, but amusing--“Here was I catched”--“There I did a beautiful discovery”--“We took camels laden with ice” (pronounced “eyes”)--so that I wondered quite a while what on earth “eyes” were for, and I worked up a little theory that they were part of the devotional paraphernalia of the Lamas before he said that they melted the “eyes” to give water in the desert. There is no need to give an account of his lecture--it has already appeared in _Harper’s_, and he is writing a book. He is not at all shy about his work, and is very clever at “buttering” the Japanese, so will be popular here. The students were very quiet while he spoke, and seemed to follow all his jokes.

=November 17.=--After fossils all day, I went to Hedin’s second lecture at the University. Several of the American Legation people and some ladies came this time, and he lectured for more than two and a half hours! Yesterday he tried to draw a tadpole on the board, and failed miserably, showing complete ignorance of its shape and of how to draw, but to-day there were many excellent sketches of the country and people given as slides on a screen. I did not get home and begin dinner until 8.30, and the lecture began at 4.30. He was cheered splendidly after his lecture; the papers are full of him and his doings. I thought I would escape Baron _K----_ this time, and got in a filled row behind the American Ambassador, but some people moved along--in came Baron _K----_ and sat down by me! However, as I had no one to talk to to-day, I behaved quite like a model schoolgirl, and took off my hat when the views came on without being asked, so perhaps I have reinstated myself in his eyes.

=November 23.=--A national holiday, so the Institute was locked, and I had, perforce, to take a holiday. It blew a perfect hurricane all day, and I was thankful to be able to stay at home. The dead leaves whirled into the garden, but the sky was brilliant, and the crimson maple trees glowed in the sunshine. My little house was protected, and I sat all day on a wide-open verandah. The day passed very peacefully and swiftly and I did some sewing for my clothes, that, even with an ideal maid, requires one’s own attention. At 4.30 the sun left the house, and the cold descended on me.

=November 24.=--From an early hour preparations were made to have a Botanical Demonstration for Sven Hedin. _Ginkgo_ and cycas spermatozoids were provided, yeast of the native wine, fossil slides under the microscope--all in working order. But the poor man is being rushed all over Tokio to such an extent that but a short time was available for each thing. He was cordial and nice, and professed to like the fossils, and seemed fairly intelligently interested, and made every one feel pleased with him.

He lunched in the festival rooms at the foot of the garden, and when he had gone Professor _S----_ sang a Te Deum, and Professor _K----_ came back and looked at the fossils again, and with Professor _F----_ we had a merry tea-party. After the day was done I called in at the Embassy on the Z----s, who returned recently, and found them at home with a few guests. It amuses me very much to note the conversations in the different Tokio sets. The continual cry among the diplomats is, “There are _no_ women in Tokio!” “So few women, we can’t give dinners,” etc. etc. Up the old cry came again to-day. But in the houses of the permanent residents, the clergy, missionaries, University professors, etc., the cry is, “There are so many, too many, girls, so difficult to get men for the dances.” Professedly the two sets mix, but practically they don’t to any real extent. But the tactless bad manners of the diplomats, who will announce to the ordinary people in Tokio that there are no women in Tokio, while those same ordinary people know that there are, and that the diplomats know that there are, is very amusing to one outside it all. One of my secret seldom-expressed ambitions, even as a girl at College, was to be an Ambassadress. Who would believe it? But now I am only too thankful that I know what a life it is, and will never need to fear that I drop into it dazzled and unawares. It is an endless round of calling and dining: they profess to complain of it themselves, but take little interest in anything else. Some one said to me, “The diplomats have no interest but themselves, and no subject of conversation but themselves,” and it really isn’t far from the truth.