The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

THE
INTJiRlOK OF A JAPANESE HOTEL. 1(J9
CHAPTER XTI.
SIGHTS AT ENOSHIMA.
party was shown to a large room at the rear of the house. Frank
suggested that a front room would be preferable ; but the Doctor
told him that in a Japanese hotel the rear of the establishment was the
place of honor, and that in a hundred hotels of the true national type he
would probably not be located half a dozen times in a front apartment.
The room where they were was very speedily divided into three smaller
ones by means of paper screens, such as we find in every Japanese house,
and wdiich are known to most Americans in consecpience of the large num-
ber that have been imported in the last few years. They can be shifted
with the rapidity of scenes in a theatre, and the promptness with which
the whole appearance of a house can be changed in a few minutes is an
approach to the marvellous.
There is very little of what we call privacy in a Japanese house, as the
paper screens are no obstructors of sound, and a conversation in an ordi-
nary tone can be heard throughout the entire establishment. It is said
that this form of building was adopted at a time when the government
w-as very fearful of conspiracies, and wished to keep everybody under its
supervision. Down to quite recent times there was a very complete system
of espionage all over the country ; and it used to be said that when
three persons were together, one of them was certain to be a spy, and the
other two were pretty sure to be spies as well. At the time Commodore
Perry went to Japan, it was the custom to set a spy over every official to
observe what he did and report accordingly. The system has been gradu-
ally dropped, but it is said to exist yet in some cpiarters.
It was rather late, and our party were hungry. Consequently the Doc-
tor ordered dinner to be served as soon as possible, and they sat down to
wait for it. The kitchen was near the entrance of the hotel, and in full
view of the strangers as they came in. Fred could not help contrasting
this arrangement with that of an American hotel, where the kitchen is
quite out of sight, and not one visitor in a thousand ever gets the faintest