=November 25.=--Hours and hours of _kuruma_ riding, and then five hours in the train, which in that time managed to do less than 100 miles, though it was on the main line and there was no change anywhere.
During the _kuruma_ ride I saw the first flock of sheep I have seen in Japan, about a dozen good-sized, clean, and healthy-looking animals.
I also learned that _monkeys_ are wild in the woods, but did not see any.
=November 26.=--I spent the day at the Institute with the new fossils and minor matters. At two o’clock I went to see the Marquis and Marchioness _N----_, who have a fine house and garden in the centre of the town near the palace. They were very kind, and showed me over the houses and garden, the former in European style, rich, but not quite aesthetic, the latter in Japanese style, with dwarf trees and quaint cut bushes, placed with an eye to effect, and where the outlook is over the tops of the town (where, I grieve to say, smoky chimneys of factories are rising up to curse and kill the beauty of the town) to the bay, with its ships on the blue water. Tea was served twice in two different drawing-rooms, and I found I had to risk insulting my hostess by speaking my low-class Japanese. I had expected her to speak English, as the invitation had been in excellent English, but I was forced to speak to a Court lady in the language of the vulgar. In Japan there are more grades of language, and even more varieties of vocabulary, than one can imagine, _e.g._ I already know for the word _is_ the following:--
{ Gosarimasu } { Gosaimasu } { Gosaimas } (arranged according to _is_ { Arimasu } the politeness). { Arimas } { Desu } { Des }
And of course there must be heaps and heaps of other forms I don’t know yet.
=November 27.=--The morning was spent at the Institute; at 12.30 Baron and Baroness _K----_ had invited me to lunch with several of the Japanese professors. Everything was in the best European style, with excellent food and ten courses for lunch! After that the Baroness kindly took me to the Japanese part of the house, where the dolls were being aired. This, I think, must be explained. Dolls in Japan are very important things, and have a feast and ceremony once a year, in March; and these dolls are very valuable--wonderfully dressed figures of ancient kings and their attendants, court ladies and ministers, with houses and exquisite lacquered furniture, chariots and sedan-chairs, boxes and swords and fans--the dolls from 4 to 10 inches high, and the furniture in rough proportion, exquisitely lacquered and finished--little gems, some of the things, and, of course, never given to the children to play with.