Page:Eliza Scidmore--Jinrikisha days in Japan.djvu/162

 made at a fixed price for each day, with everything included, as at an American hotel.

Foreigners travelling away from the ports take with them a guide, who acts as courier, cooks and serves the meals, and asks one dollar a day and his expenses. Thus accompanied everything goes smoothly and easily; rooms are found ready, meals are served promptly, show-places open their doors, the best conveyances await the traveller’s wish, and an encyclopædic interpreter is always at his elbow. Without a guide or an experienced servant, even a resident who speaks the language fares hardly. Like all Orientals, the Japanese are impressed by a retinue and the appearances of wealth. They wear their best clothes when travelling, make a great show, and give liberal tips. The foreigner who goes to the Nakasendo or to remote provinces alone, trusting to the phrase-book, finds but little consideration or comfort. He ranks with the class of pilgrims, and the guest-room and the choicest dishes are not for him. The guide may swindle his master a little, but the comforts and advantages he secures are well worth the cost. All the guides are well-to-do men with tidy fortunes. They exact commissions wherever they bring custom, and can make or break landlords or merchants if they choose to combine. Some travellers, who, thinking it sharp to deprive the guides of these percentages, have been left by them in distant provinces and forced to make their way alone, have found the rest of the journey a succession of impositions, difficulties, and even of real hardships. After engaging a guide and handing him the passport, the traveller has only to enjoy Japan and pay his bill at the end of the journey. The guides know more than the guide-book; and with Ito, made famous by Miss Bird, Nikko and Kioto yielded to us many pleasures which we should otherwise have missed. An acquaintance with Miyashta and his sweet-potato hash 146