On returning we missed the connecting train and had an hour and a half to wait; it was cold and began to rain. I didn’t mind, for Professor _S----_ was very interesting, and we talked of nearly everything under heaven and earth--but the more I see of him the less I think he is a typical Japanese; he is an exceptional one. I was sorry for poor Mrs. _S----_, however, who could not follow our conversation very well, and who had no one else to talk to. We dined at a restaurant in Tokio, and I got back home after a thirteen-hours outing, practically _tête à tête_ with a Japanese man--and bored I had not been for a moment, and people here say you can’t get any real companionship from the Japanese. I say it is those people’s own faults.
=May 11.=--Torrents of rain all day, so that I did nothing but work at the Institute--which was somewhat hampered by the absence of the boy who runs the engine. I got home in an awfully bad temper, after battling with everything all day--but the bright dripping green of the trees all round me, and the peace of my little house, soon soothed me up.
=May 12.=--Pouring rain all day again; it was so hateful ploughing through these streets, with no side-walks and mud 6 inches deep, that I decided not to go to-morrow, but stop at home. There was a dance at the K----’s, and I had a good time. A charming American was there, who smiled all the time and made one happy just to look at him. There was also a young, fair-haired Mr. B----. His teachers must have been very proud of him; he had the bright smile and the “good” look of a favourite boy, and an ornament to the Y.M.C.A. I felt sure he must be a missionary, but he turned out to be an artist, just out, and to stay a year, painting all sorts of things, Japanese portraits among them. He seemed much astonished when he found I had travelled alone--I am sure his sisters never would,--and when I tried to soothe him by quoting my French and other tours (to show I thought it an everyday sort of thing to do), he seemed so very astonished that I drew in the rein and got him to talk of his own character, which causes him trouble and interest.
=May 13.=--The rain cleared off, but the roads are still bad, yet by the time I came home they were beginning to be dusty.