Show IN A JAPANESE HOTEL teus tells of the trials of a traveler rooms at midnight we came up the one long street that constitutes the villas village e of nikko and seven rattling into the hotel court and fourteen coolies shouting to one another and altogether roused the house and the whole neighborhood bo peaceful sleepers upstairs were roused looked out at us and banged tho screens shut angrily the japanese bed is the floor with a wooden box under the neck for a pillow and a cotton wadded comforter for a covering the mats arc an inch or two gliick made of soft straw with a finely woven top surface and it is to preserve these soft floor mats i i that shoes are not worn in the house for the foreigner the japanese landlord allows five or six futons or wadded comforters and they make a tolerable mattress although not springy and rather apt to feel damp and smell musty the traveler carries liis his own shoots sheets woolen blankets and feather pillows and above all flea powder which is the most part of the bed if it is designed for rest at all the straw mats and the futons are the special haunts haunt sand and homes of the fleas ind without a liberal dusting of every urt tart of the coverings and all about the adges it is impossible to sleep if the powder is fresh and strong there is a grim satisfaction in the morning in looking over the edges of the futon futons s and watching the dead and dying fleas whose death agonies are as great as those of leviathans levi athans this sleeping on the floor on a pile of cotton comforters is ig not really comfortable and coupled with the fatigues of walking and mountain chai chairing bing stiffens ones joints sadly over night and would soon bring on rheumatism by day the futons aro are piled in closets out of sight or hung huing over tho the balconies to air an and d if the servants forget to brin bring them in before sunset the airing makes them damper than over ever the only walls walla of the rooms are the paper screens that slide in grooves and if ones next aneio neighbor abor is ia curious he slips tho the screen a little or pokes a hole through the paper A whisper or a pin drop can be heard from room to room and a good anglo saxon would be heard all over a japanese hotel and probably rock the whole structure with his solo apparently ly the japanese never snore or else the scorers aro are killed in their youth as one never hears bears any stock anecdotes of their disturbances at inns the outer gallery or balcony on which all the rooms open as the common hall by dayt day is closed in solidly at night with wooden shutters that make a thunderous rumbling at dusk when they are put up and another and worse one at dawn when they are shoved aside baths at a japanese inn are always made ready at night and the tubs are large and liot hot water plentiful the morri morning ting bath is not a ceremonious affair at all the guests being expected to dip their faces and hands into shallow copper basins baans that with a bucket of water occupy a shelf fastened outside the balcony rail one gets a good view of the landscape or the town or the hotel courtyard according as the balcony fronts and t the he pleasure is also enjoyed in tho the reverse reveres way ruhamah amah in globe democrat |