Page:Through the torii (IA throughtorii00noguiala).pdf/78

 and taste the first bonitos? It was a pity that their taste of tongue which, as the last development of civilization, had highly advanced, now lost its own place; and when the time began to return to prosperity quite altered from the former age, after finishing the so-called civil war of the tenth year, the cult or art of old Japanese cooking found the situation unfavourable under the invasion of Western food; it was since 1880 that the restaurants of Western way of cooking, here with the name of Western Sea house, like the American Hall or London Restaurant, began to flock into the city. Here they met an immediate reception, because the food was served quickly, unlike the regular old Japanese tea-house, and above all the charge was small. There is no better supporter for a restaurant than economy; with that backing the foreign restaurants became successful. I myself always drop in one of those, whether it be London Restaurant (Oh, what does that mean anyhow?) or American Hall (again what does that mean?) to take a little lunch when I am in town, because, as I said before, the charge is small (in fact it is extraordinarily high for what Rh