CHAPTER III
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
As one nail drives out another so were the sights of Honolulu lost inthose newer ones which were met as the vessel entered the great bay.
"It is just like the pictures," cried Nan, eagerly squeezing hersister's arm.
"It is exactly," responded Mary Lee. "Oh, Nan, those square-sailedthings are the junks, aren't they? And oh, what a lot of little boats."
"And isn't the color beautiful?" returned Nan, her eyes seeking thefurther mass of shore beyond the calmly glittering waters. "I am wildlyexcited, aren't you, Aunt Helen? Somehow it seems the foreignest of allthe foreign countries we have seen yet, much more than Honolulu did,for there was so much that was American there."
"It is certainly deeply interesting," her aunt agreed. "I suppose weshall have to come down to the matter-of-fact question of customsdirectly, and after that we can begin to enjoy ourselves."
"Oh, dear me, I always forget that there are such disagreeable thingsas customs. I hope they will not capture my precious calabash."
But the customs were easily passed and then came the first sensation ofthe day, a ride to the hotel in a _jinrikisha_.
"I feel as if I were on a fan or a _kakamono_," giggled Mary Lee, asthey were borne along by their galloping coolie.
"What funny little houses," commented Nan. "Can you imagine that reallysober, every-day people live in them? It all looks like a joke, and asif we might come to our sober senses after a while. To be sure someof the houses do look somewhat European, but even they have a queerexpression."
"I didn't expect to see any horses, and yet there are a good many."Mary Lee made the observation.
"I suppose they have been brought in by the foreign population," saidNan. "I have seen quite a number of phaetons, and some persons onhorseback, so there goes one rooted theory. Set it down for a fact thatthey do have horses in Japan."
"Don't the shops look fascinating! But we mustn't try to buy much ofanything here for we are going to Tokyo almost at once, Aunt Helensays. Do you know how far it is, Nan?"
"Only about twenty miles, I believe. Ah, here is our hotel right onthe quay. We get a harbor view, but they say the best scenery is nothere, but that further in the interior it is wonderful. I am wild forthe first glimpse of Fujiyama."
"I suppose we shall be honorabled and kowtowed to from this out,"remarked Mary Lee as they left their _jinrikishas_ to be met at thehotel door by a bowing, obsequious person who conducted them inside.
"It should be a flattering possibility, but you must remember that weare only poor miserable females and are of no account in this land."
"I shall remember that when I get carried away by my admiration ofthings Japanese," replied Mary Lee.
Their rooms looked out upon the water, and for some time they gavethemselves up to viewing the novel scene spread out before them; thequeer crafts which passed and repassed; the lambent, soft light whichplayed over the waters; the effect of a swarming crowd in the costumeof the country, at times diversified by the wearing of a partialEuropean dress, again accentuated by those who wore such attire as wasmost familiar to the girls in their own home. It was quite late in theday and, as they expected to go on to Tokyo the next morning, theydecided to take _jinrikishas_ or as they discovered them to be called_kuruma_ and _kurumaya_, that they might see something of the city ofYokohama and have their first experience of Japanese shops.
"Now, Nan," warned Mary Lee the wise, "don't get too reckless even ifthings are cheap. We have months before us and if you begin to load upnow, think what you will have by the end of the time."
Nan, hesitating while she looked longingly at a fragile cup and saucer,sighed. "I suppose you are right, but one's enthusiasm is always somuch more ardent in the beginning. Besides, I have always found that nomatter how much I carried home with me from abroad, I was always sorryI didn't buy double."
"But these breakable things will be so hard to lug around."
"True, my practical sister. I think I will limit myself to the purchaseof two things alone in this precious town and it will be fun to decidewhat they shall be."
From shop to shop they went, stopping to look at the queer hangingsigns, to examine the curios, the silks, and the odds and ends whichcould be picked up for a mere trifle. But at last Nan decided upon asilk scarf as being easy to carry and a singularly lovely kakamono,though she gave many a sigh to the beautiful bits of color which shemust pass by. "So cheap," she would murmur, "and I can't have it."
Then Mary Lee would resolutely rush her away with the consoling remarkthat doubtless she would find things twice as lovely and even morecheap in other places. "For you must remember," said she, "that weare only on the threshold, and probably, as this is such a well-knownseaport, and one which is so much visited, things here are moreexpensive than they will be further on."
"I bow to your superior judgment," Nan would reply, with a lastbackward look at the treasure she coveted.
Mary Lee, herself, followed Nan's decision and bought but two articles,one a small piece of carved ivory and the other a piece of embroidery,both of which could be easily tucked away and would take up little room.
Their afternoon would not have been complete without a first visit to atea-house. "A really truly Japanese one this time," said Nan. "Aren'tyou glad we waited? I have much more of a sensation, haven't you, AuntHelen?"
"It does seem the real thing in such an atmosphere and such a company,"she returned, as they were served with the pale yellow beverage in tinycups by the most smiling of little maids.
It was something of a ceremony as they discovered, when, at the verydoor, they must remove their shoes that they might not soil the cleanstraw mats with which the floor was thickly spread. Slippers wereprovided them and shuffling in with these upon their feet they sat oncushions, when a little maid in kimono and broad _obi_ came forward toask if the honorable ladies would like some honorable tea.
"Dear me," whispered Nan, "it is just as I hoped it would be. We havebeen called honorable at last."
Presently the _mousmee_ approached on her knees bearing a carved traywhich she presented most humbly, and the three sat drinking theirtea and trying to realize that this was Japan and that they were notdreaming.
Continuing their ride, they were taken still further away from theEuropean quarter of the town through the streets which looked more andmore foreign; but they did not stop at any of the tiny shops, raisedabove the street, with their banner-like signs of blue or red or whiteall bearing lettering in fantastic Japanese or Chinese characters. Itwas all wonderfully rich and harmonious and the three were so busydrinking in the sights, the queer little low houses, the people, mostlyhabited in blue, short of stature, smiling, picturesque, that they weretaken by surprise when at last their broad-hatted runner stopped.They looked up there to see before them in the evening light the greatcone of Fujiyama, or Fujisan, as the wonderful mountain is called.
Nan began to laugh hysterically. "What makes you do that?" said MaryLee. "I don't see anything so amusing about this glorious view."
"I have to do something," returned Nan, "and I don't want to cry. Ihave to do one or the other, it is so wonderfully beautiful. Doesn'tit seem like the very spirit of a mountain wrapped in this pale, mistyevening light? The great sacred mountain! And how high is it? I mustlook at my book and see." She turned the leaves of the book which shecarried with her. "The great volcano," she read, "is between 12,000and 13,000 feet high. It is 120 miles around the base. It has beenpractically inactive since 1707, yet there is a spot where it stillshows indications of inward fires which, it is safe to declare, maybreak out some day."
"Dear me, let us hope it will not be while we are here," said Mary Lee.
"It isn't at all probable," Nan assured her, "for I am sure there wouldbe some warning, unearthly noises, and growlings and mutterings. Ishouldn't mind a little harmless sort of eruption, and I am ratherlooking for a baby earthquake that we can really expect almost anytime. Do you know, Mary Le
e, I am only beginning to wake up to thetremendous possibilities of Japan. Every little while I come upon thedescription of some famous shrine or temple, some wonderful view,some queer custom, or fascinating festival. I am beginning to getmore and more bewildered, and shall have to sift this information soI can gather together the few grains which must serve us while we arehere. It would never do to go away with merely a hodge-podge of factsnot properly catalogued in our minds. You, who have an orderly andpractical mind, must help me arrange some sort of synopsis of what weare to see and why we must."
Mary Lee agreed and after a short observation of the magic mountain,they turned their backs upon it and saw only the bobbing hat of theirrunner who bore them through the unfamiliar and weirdly interestingstreets, whose shops were now beginning to be lighted by gay paperlanterns, on to a more familiar looking quarter of the city, peopledprincipally by Europeans and back to the hotel on the quay, wherethey stopped. Their minds were full of new sensations, and their eyeswere still filled with the pictures of foreign streets, smiling,gentle-voiced little people, and lastly great Fujisan, calm andbeautiful in the sunset glow.
After dismissing the _jinrikishas_, the three entered the hotel again,Nan walking ahead. As they were passing through the corridor, shestopped short as she came face to face with a girl about her own agewho also came to a halt as she saw Nan. Then she sprang forward andtook Nan by the shoulders, giving her a gentle shake. "Nan Corner, as Ilive! This is surprising."
"Eleanor Harding, who could have expected to meet you on the other sideof the world?" cried Nan.
"How on earth did you get here?" asked Eleanor.
"Just dug a hole and fell through," returned Nan.
Eleanor laughed. "Dear me, that does make me feel as if we were allback at Bettersley. Why, there is Mary Lee, too! What fun!" Shehastened forward to greet her old classmate, and to speak to Miss Helenwhom she had met more than once at various college functions. "Well,this is luck," she declared. "Do let us go somewhere and have a goodtalk. Have you all had dinner? No? Then come along and sit with me forI was just going in."
"But we are still in traveling dress," objected Mary Lee, alwaysparticular.
"Never mind that; lots of others will be, too. Come right along."
Thus urged the three followed along to the dining-room where they founda table to themselves over in one corner, and the chattering began.
"Now tell me all about it," said Eleanor. "Dear me, but it does me goodto see you."
"We have come just because we all wanted to," Nan told her. "Aunt Helenproposed it, and here we are. We left mother and the twinnies at home."
"Jack and Jean are at Bettersley, of course."
"Yes, pegging away and getting along about as well as the rest of usdid in our freshman year. Jack, as may be guessed, is in everything,including scrapes, but she is a general favorite and always comes outon top."
"It makes me sort of homesick," said Eleanor with a sigh.
"But you haven't told us yet what brought you here," Mary Lee remindedher.
"Oh, so I haven't. I came out with my aunt whose husband is an armyman. My brother is in the diplomatic service and is to be here sometime, probably, so every one thought it was my chance for seeing thiscountry."
"It certainly is, for you will have opportunities denied the rest of usmere tourists. Is your aunt here in Yokohama?"
"For the present. She and my brother have both gone to some functionthis evening, hence I am alone. Do you know what I thought when I firstcaught sight of you, Nan? I thought you were married and had come onyour wedding trip."
"No such prospect for Nancy," was the answer.
"What about Rob Powell?" asked Eleanor. "He used to be your adorer ayear ago."
"Was it only a year ago? It seems ten," returned Nan. "Oh, I hear ofhim once in a while from Rita Converse. He is doing pretty well for abeginner, I believe."
"What callous indifference," replied Eleanor. "I quite counted onhearing of your engagement by this time."
"I don't seem to engage as readily as some others," Nan made answer,"and the longer I put it off the more 'fistadious' I become as Jeanused to say. What about yourself, Nell, my dear? I don't forget YaleProm."
"Oh, bless me, who can count upon what happened before the deluge? I'vebegun all over again. I am counting on my brother Neal to supply mewith something in the way of a Mikado or a _daimio_."
"Deliver me if you please," cried Mary Lee.
"So say we all of us," echoed Nan. "No Japanese mother-in-law for me.You must do better than that, Eleanor."
So the chaff and chatter went on. Eleanor had been one of theircomrades at college and there were a thousand questions to ask on eachside, reminiscences and all that, the process of what the girls called"reminiscing" continuing long after they had left the table and hadretired to a spot where they would be undisturbed. Here, after a while,they were discovered by Eleanor's brother who was duly presented andwho entertained them all by an account of the affair which he had justattended. Later came in Mrs. Craig to hunt up her niece and nephew.She was a charming woman who had already been through many interestingexperiences, and who was disposed to make much of these college friendsof her niece.
"We must all have some good times together," she proposed. "My husbandand Neal have both been out here long enough to give us suggestions."
Neal declared himself eager to be of assistance and lost no time inbeginning to plan what they all must do the next day. There was somediscussion about hours and engagements, but at last all was arranged tothe satisfaction of every one concerned and the little company brokeup.
"Did you ever know such luck?" whispered Nan as they were going totheir rooms. "Aunt Helen, we certainly started out under a lucky star.What would Honolulu have been without Mrs. Beaumont? And here come Mrs.Craig and Mr. Harding to act as cicerone for us here. Nell Harding ofall people! I can't get over my surprise yet."
"Were you very intimate with her at college?" asked Miss Helen.
"Not quite as much so as with Rita Converse and one or two others.Still we were very good friends, especially during our senior year. Doyou remember, Mary Lee, that she was the one who wrote to her brotherabout that horrid Oliver Adams, when you were taking up the cudgels forNatty Gray?"
"Indeed I do remember," returned Mary Lee. "She was so nice about it; Ihave always liked her better ever since that time. What do you think ofthis brother, Nan?"
"Pleasant sort of somebody. Looks as if there might be a good deal inhim. Not specially good-looking, but he has nice eyes and a well-shapedhead that looks as if he had more than ordinary intellect. I think weshall all become very good friends. Don't you like Mrs. Craig, AuntHelen? I am sure she is great, and is going to be no end of help to us."
So the talk went on while the night opened up new stars to theirvision, and the coming day promised new friends, new scenes and newexperiences.
THEY LOOKED UP TO SEE THE GREAT CONE OFFUJIYAMA]
CHAPTER IVTEMPLES AND TEA]
The Four Corners in Japan Page 3
