MY JAPANESE HOUSE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 233, 8 December 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

MY JAPANESE HOUSE.

AN AMUSING ACCOUNT OF A YOUNG MANS EXPERIENCES

I havj taken a house in Sakawa a charming little hamlet, all pines and silver sand and blue sea, with the mountains rising up out of the plain. My house is truly with .our rooms and " conveniences" of a most primitive kind. the bathroom would certainly be sniffed at by a London washerwoman—l say this because it looks so very much like a washhouse in poor health, which indeed it is. In order to people my house 1 have pun-chased a family, consisting of a widow, hor son and daughter. 1 pay for them, apparently, in instalments, and they are as much my personal property as my toothbrush or campstool. The widow, who is plump and poetic, promises to be a most entertaining servant. The daughter aids her in the housework, while the son still goes to school. The widow .s called Hani, tho daughter O Hana while the son gets off with a modest Kijuro. Thev call me 0 Dana San—what it means I really don't know, but I swell with pride when I hear it, because the deference they show when they say it convinces me it must be very complimentary. The Japanese are nothing if not correct. Everything is done quite according to tradition, and the right god is invoked at the right momen. 1 feesure that every little action that takes place in my modest establishment is under the direct supervision of one of their nine hundred andi ninety-nma gods. Furnishing mv house was very simple and verv entertaining. One simply strolled out and bought some pots and pans, some bowls and chopsticks, some cushions and some mattresses. and that was all that was necessary. True, I bought a host of pretty little meaningless articles which delighted my soul, but they were in no way essential, only merely decorative. It you try to furnish Japanese houses, the result is disastrous; their beauty lies m their simplicity, and with their delightful matting and papar walls they possess a charm which holds its own -n contrast with our overcrowded rooms in England that cost a great deal or monev. In Japan you furnish on the same'amount of money as one would spend on a library sofa at home. The bathroom, to which I have already alluded, consists of a paper erection built off the house at rather a windy cornea-. This is a drawback, because on windy days I am frequently compelled to chase after it down the road or across the rite-fields and bring it back. It harbours a wooden appaiatus with a hole in the middle and a stove-pipe/at one end—this is the bath. I sit in the hole every evening about six o'clock, and steam comes out of the pipe. I have not yet persuaded the family that they must not make this untoward moment the one time in the day when thev wish to chat to me, bu u no doubt I shall get used to it, or they will learn better. » My Japanese cmsint is excellent, it you are artistic, I can give you lotus root salad and siliced bamboo. If you are not, I can give you anything varying from salted plums to octopus soup; this latter dish I dislike candidly, but I can eat and enjoy the overgrown radish which one sees everywhere m the country, and which usually baffles the iusides of most foreigners. It is known as daikon, and looks like a white radish in a pantomime. It is winter, so my garden is sleeping but not the sound, sad sleep of the English gardens, bound as they are by frost and occasional snow, lhere is always a litis flower somewhere in it to make me happy, and I look forward with joy to the blossom time that will soon be hare. . .. Yesterday I went up by train to lokio to buy some kimonos. I found a most wonderful shop, where I purchased tin completest outfit in the shortest possible time. I was a little* disappointed when I learnt that men are limited <vj a certain range of colours in their kimonos—saxe blues, navy blues, varied browns, slate greys, and a few dull nondescripts that were rather interesting. I chose some charming blues iiml browns. In the matter of shirts, however, or under-kimonos, one can let oneself go —tradition and etiquette allow it. My "unders" would stop a fight; they are so giddy and are decorated with coy dragons and rice harvests. When I showed my purchases to the familv they opened their three mouths and gaped with admiraton. "Taihen uroshii des nai." said tha widow about fifty-six times to the minute, while 0 Hana and Kijuro contented themselves with intermittent "Maas," which is the noise the Japanese make when they ara flabergasted. I put one of my kimonos on for my evening meal. The. widow seemed to admire" me so much that she sat and shrieked for the family to come and help in the admiration. They said the most flatering things, and I belicv?, had I let them, they would have called in all my fisher-folk and farmer neighhours to a private view. —From "A Bachelor in Japan, <y Eric Erskine Wood.