If I Am At Any Time In Difficulties I Apply To Them, And,
Though They Are Disposed To Be Somewhat De Haut En Bas, They Are
Sure To Help One, Except About Routes, Of Which They Always Profess
Ignorance.
On the whole, I like Kubota better than any other Japanese town,
perhaps because it is so completely Japanese and has no air of
having seen better days.
I no longer care to meet Europeans -
indeed I should go far out of my way to avoid them. I have become
quite used to Japanese life, and think that I learn more about it
in travelling in this solitary way than I should otherwise. I. L.
B.
LETTER XXIII
"A Plague of Immoderate Rain" - A Confidential Servant - Ito's Diary-
-Ito's Excellences - Ito's Faults - Prophecy of the Future of Japan -
Curious Queries - Superfine English - Economical Travelling - The
Japanese Pack-horse again.
KUBOTA, July 24.
I am here still, not altogether because the town is fascinating,
but because the rain is so ceaseless as to be truly "a plague of
immoderate rain and waters." Travellers keep coming in with
stories of the impassability of the roads and the carrying away of
bridges. Ito amuses me very much by his remarks. He thinks that
my visit to the school and hospital must have raised Japan in my
estimation, and he is talking rather big. He asked me if I noticed
that all the students kept their mouths shut like educated men and
residents of Tokiyo, and that all country people keep theirs open.
I have said little about him for some time, but I daily feel more
dependent on him, not only for all information, but actually for
getting on. At night he has my watch, passport, and half my money,
and I often wonder what would become of me if he absconded before
morning. He is not a good boy. He has no moral sense, according
to our notions; he dislikes foreigners; his manner is often very
disagreeable; and yet I doubt whether I could have obtained a more
valuable servant and interpreter. When we left Tokiyo he spoke
fairly good English, but by practice and industrious study he now
speaks better than any official interpreter that I have seen, and
his vocabulary is daily increasing. He never uses a word
inaccurately when he has once got hold of its meaning, and his
memory never fails. He keeps a diary both in English and Japanese,
and it shows much painstaking observation. He reads it to me
sometimes, and it is interesting to hear what a young man who has
travelled as much as he has regards as novel in this northern
region. He has made a hotel book and a transport book, in which
all the bills and receipts are written, and he daily transliterates
the names of all places into English letters, and puts down the
distances and the sums paid for transport and hotels on each bill.
He inquires the number of houses in each place from the police or
Transport Agent, and the special trade of each town, and notes them
down for me.
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