Lucy Harris Travel Diary 1897

The gardens are beautiful the Maple Trees grown hills Bamboo. The green & the red is very charming. Oct.26 - Today Mrs. Steadman [Bluffs?] called upon us and we are to return the visit after we come back from Nikko, where we go tomorrow at seven a.m.. The trains run so slowly that it is a day's journey. Captain Brown[?], Mrs. [Jason Finnel?] came for dinner with us. He has advised a lady guide for Tokio and we will take her for a week. Ronald and I went to Theatre Street to take photos and enjoyed our morning. The banners before the house seem so odd, put up on tall bamboo poles like [? skin] masts. The children seem so happy. Never a pained cry and they seem to live in the street so far our weather has been delightful just like our best October days in Canada. Warm in the sun shine and cold nights and mornings. It seemed to amuse the people to see us get out and walk on the stony roads for if you do not do this you get shaken fearfully but they fold their hands and go on. The men who draw the jinrickishas I'm told are not long lived. They run and get hot then just stand and wait for another fare - the coolie class only wear a jacket and loin cloth.

[29] [Black & White postcard, depicting a two-storey hotel, with columns, and balconies. Set in a treed area, with trees, landscaping, and a pond in front. Four Japanese men depicted, in a variety of dress Western, tradition, and coolies] standing in the bottom left of the photo on a walkway or driveway. The photo is pasted over the diary entry at the top of page, making it illegible. [Caption of Photo listed underneath it that reads: NIKKO HOTEL,Nikko, Japan.]

it seemed very hard work coming up the hill and I was glad, when we got to our rooms, double rooms the minor one with bed & wash stand the that with a window being arranged as a sitting room, the hotel is very good food plain & well cooked [long stroke of ink ____] being tired so went to bed early [30 in left margin] a most beautiful sunrise and the view from our window very [fine?] we got a guide at the hotel. Mr & Mrs ]Hartshorne] Dr & Mrs Chill A Mrs Connelly & 2 children with our party of 4 made rather too much fortunately Mrs Hartshorne is very well read on Japanese tempers & proved a very delightful

Milly got my cheque so took my trunk with her. After we had tea, Ronald started off with hers & the keys to join her. We will go & see about one cabinet in the morning. We take Miss Holmes as a guide but I am not sure how it will answer. After dinner, George and I went to call upon her & tell her we were ready to start st 4 p.m. tomorrow, We thought we could find our way back but the Bluffs proved very confusing & it took us nearly an hour & a half to return to our hotel. We never met a single European and walked quite a long way. After looking at cabinets we think it better to see what we will find in Tokio. Got some letters for Mrs. Chill.

Monday Nov. 1 - We wondered about but did see anything we were very much charmed with. Captain Brown came in & lunched with us. Assorted some of my Trunks. Miss Holmes came in good time but I fear she is not quite what we needed. She let George carry her bag & did offer to about tickets or luggage - too fine a lady.

[Nov.1 in left margin] Arrived at Tokio about 5:45 p.m. an hour from Yokohamma. This seems to be a flat place, long streets low buildings & not well lighted. Smells on every side. I should not care to stay very long. Found Milly quite used up. She & Ronald had lost their way & she over walked herself & was a white as a sheet. The Hotel Metropole was at one time the French Legation. It was very full so they made us up a bed in the second diningrooms. We found Dr. & Mrs. Chill, Mr. & Miss Hartshorne , Mr. & Mrs Carlington from the Empress all the people are very civil but the Hotel food is poor, not [Nov 2 in left margin] enough variety. We visited a very strange temple in the morning in the Ueno Park at one shrine were offerings of hair cut off in long strands. You said yr prayer, offered yr hair the gods prevented any more hair falling from your head; this temple, reminded me of the temple we read of, where Jesus turned the money changers out & said it was a den of thieves. The temple is called the Thousand Handed Kwannon Immense stone lanterns are always found near these temples Also had some bronze ones all much alike.

[in margin] Nov 2nd In the afternoon Milly was not well so laid down & we George and I called on Mrs. [Aitchi???] & her daughter at cottage in the American legation's grounds. Mrs. Hurd was very polite, but I fancy we will not see much of them. Steamer friendships are often short. We called upon Mrs. Brindley 3 as [asked?] We had a lot of trouble to find just where she lived as in Tokyo you can walk miles without meeting a single English speaking person. We at last found the house and in it the Father and Mother very plain people with no attempt at refined ideas the son is the most presentable & I fancy the daughter in law will soon get to be one of them. She had been to call upon us, but we will not see more of them altho she Mrs. Brindley was very sweet. We went to the Maple leaf Club to have a Geisha dinner at a regular tea house, each party here to order their dinner some hours before and pay a portion in advance say 5 yen. For a party of twelve - you sit on the floor beside a small charcoal fire. A mat is provided & after a long wait, yr dinner is brought in by the maids

a big tray on legs which serves for a table. This particular dinner consisted of soup with a strange seaweed cut up and a slice of fish floating about. It was clear but tasteless. As chop sticks were all that was provided we did not feel sure if it was proper to drink your soup and to fish many bits was hard work. Beside the soup 2 plates, one contained a small square of fried fish, a very large prawn, a pickled plum and a slab of white-looking mixture which I was told was pounded porpoise. The other plate had a bit of raw fish 2 pickles a mushroom and 3 squares of a sweet paste, a cup of saki & a bottle of saki between every 2 persons. We tried to enjoy it but I fancy everyone was glad to go home. Milly was so white I took her away and after I had got her to bed, found all the party having supper. The giesha party were Mr Hartshorne, Dr. and Mrs. Chill, Mr. and Mrs. Carleton, Mr. and Mrs. [?] and son with ourselves. The music was very poor just a twanging on some strange sort of banjo. The people have no ear for music and so the singing gave pain not pleasure. The dancing consists of dresses and moving the arms about weaving a sort of -------.

Nov. 3 - A fine day. In the morning we made a very early start and go to the and see the tomb of the 47 Ronins and then in the afternoon which was the Mikado's birthday we went to the great chrysanthemum flower show. This shows what wonderful gardeners these people are. Figures of bamboo are made life size, representing favourite actors or better still a whole scene from a play is made of bamboo. The flower roots are then put inside the figure and the arms frills, trimmings and folds in the draperies are shown in different coloured chrysanthemums. We saw 2 scenes on a revolving stage. One had a horse, the other a dog all done in leaves and flowers. It is not pretty but represents much patience. The cut flowers were not as good as we have at home but the dirty crowds would spoil any place in the world. Hundreds of people. The distance here is very great and one is tired before you get to the sight you have in view. But worse than all are the smells. I shall be glad to get away. We will I think go back to Yokohama on Friday as we did not get our cards for the Imperial Gardens as we had hoped.

Nov.4. We had a very nice drive around the Park where the Mikado lives. I let Miss Holmes go home, to join us tomorrow for the trip to Miyanoshita as she said she was not provided with suitable clothing. I let her come home to the hotel and told her to get a cup of tea before she started on her journey. To my astonishment I found her sitting in my bedroom drinking her tea. She never offered any excuse or did she realize she had taken a liberty. Her own room was one flight upstairs and it certainly was a surprise to me to find her sitting in my room with her tea tray. We will leave tomorrow. Spent all evening looking for the passport as George had taken it out of his pocket and we had to unpack everything and found it with some papers in the bottom of his trunk packed for Canada. Dear me, how much bother one can have that does no good to anyone. Today altogether has been our first bad day in Japan. I shall be glad to get off tomorrow morning from Tokio. The place is so depressing to my mind.

Nov. 5.We left at 9:45 am in a pouring rain, the first wet day in Japan. The effect of people using huge umbrellas to cover their heads and have their legs and feet uncovered is odd to our eyes. THe coolies are fond of a high straw hat, a mat made of straw around their shoulders. A second one they wear as a skirt - the effect, at a short distance is that of a wheat sheaf on 2 brown legs. They do not seem to mind the weather for babies and all seem to be out just as if it were fine. Our bad luck has not left us for we found that George had not got his gold from the safe at Metropole so Ronald went back for it. I packed and went out with Milly to get some drawn work. It looks so pretty and this is made only at Yokohama. We called at Mrs. Stedman, Settlement no.205 and found them very fine people. We are going to dine there tomorrow night at 7 p.m. It never ceased raining all day and tonight is no better so the excursion to Kamakura is put off until Sunday. Nov. 6. A very dark wet day. At 9:30 we got our letters by the San Francisco boat China. One from Ted was a great delight to me as he seems to feel very satisfied with his

school. Also a letter from Lady Johnson & one from Jane Stae. Mrs.Beddows is very ill. I fear I will never see my good friend again. Captain Brown came and George would not see him or rather that Captain Brown did not wait to see him but we will not get a cabinet here after all. Our dinner at the Steadmans was very nice, only her brother who she called Jim. I did not catch his other name. We had a very delightful ice made of Green Tea. They all seemed such nice people. Not rich. Nov.7 George, Milly and Ronald went off with Miss Holmes to see the bronze statue of Dai Butzu, a wonderful casting of Bronze, 50 feet high. I was not well enough to go. I went to church and afterwards had to lie down. Rheumatism is very bad in this place and my hands were so stiff I could not write. The church was very small and pews were set aside for strangers. The clergyman prayed first for the President of the United States even before the Queen. I did not like his voice or sermon. Paid Miss Holmes on her return from Kamakura as we will not go to Miya-no-Shita. The weather is too unsettled and Ronald is laid up. Bad water at Tokyo did it I think.