--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Sandford W. Hedges collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 6 number: 8 published: 1903-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Sandford W. Hedges, "Life in Japan," *Improvement Era* 6, no. 8 (June 1903): 599–603.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0608unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0608unse start_page: 599 end_page: 603 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0608unse publication_year: 1903 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1903, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Life in Japan LIFE IN JAPAN. BY SANDFORD W. HEDGES, OF THE JAPANESE MISSION. Next Saturday night (April 18, 1903,) we have a meeting in the "Kinki Kwan." That is a theatre and lecture hall, in one of the largest districts in Kanda. Kanda is the district we lived in when we staid at the hotel. Apostle Heber J. Grant will be the chief speaker, and he will speak in English at this meeting, which is to be the first of a series we intend holding there. He will be followed by Elder Horace Ensign, who will speak for a short time, followed by Elders Alma 0. Taylor and Fred Caine in the Japanese language.* Then we will all have our turn. We intend giving about six vocal selections, with a solo by Elder Ensign. Already the news has spread, and we expect to have a good crowd; our friends here are very much interested, and Mr. Hirai, who speaks good English, obtained the hall for us. Mr. Hirai is the gentleman who gave a lecture before a religious convention in America, hia speech appearing in the Deseret News, and was on "Japan's Rela- tion Towards Christianity." We are looking forward to the event with great anticipations of pleasure. Let me tell you about an experience we had on the 12th. After our afternoon meeting, the lot of us left to attend the open- ing of a girls' school, situated about a half hour's walk from Tokyo. We are of course interested in education, and love to see advance- * By letter from Apostle Heber J. Grant received later, it is learned that the meeting was a great success, the house being nearly filled with people. The young missionaries who spoke in the foreign language did well. Mention is specially made of Alma 0. Taylor who spoke for fif- teen minutes; he was congratulated by some of the leading Japanese — present who said his language was without fault. Editors. 600 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ment among the girls as well as the boys, and hence we gladly Elder Horace Ensign was asked to sing, accepted the invitation. which he gladly did. We found about one hundred girls prettily grouped on a sidehill awaiting our arrival, and what do you think they were waiting for? They were waiting to have us in a picture that was about to be taken of them. We scattered through the group, and the work over, we proceeded to the building. As we were special guests we did not have to take off our shoes. The room wa3 not light, large and airy as most of our buildings are at home, but a rather low, dark, little room with benches about a foot and a half high, without backs. A raised stand was in one corner of the room where the performer acted. When all were seated the program soon began. Two selections of vocal music were followed by an instrumental piece. Then came Elder Ensign's song. As it was Sunday, he sang "0 Ye Mountains High," and he no sooner began than loud applause rang forth from the audience; when he came to the chorus, we all joined in, and that took the house by storm. We have a very good choir. The sisters, Apostle Grant and Elders Caine and Ensign sing treble, Elders Joseph Featherstone, Erastus Jarvis and John Stoker, bass, and Elder Taylor and myself sing tenor. We practice three times every day, and so have become quite proficient in our singing. After our song was concluded Elder Ensign sang "Kimiga," the Japanese national hymn, and when he concluded, he began over and asked all to join. It was a treat to hear and see the young girls sing. It was, per- haps, the first time they had heard a foreigner sing their national song, and enthusiasm'ran high. Such an event will never leave the young mind. We made a good impression. At the conclusion of the exercises we were taken to a beautiful spot commanding a view of the surrounding country, and there served with Japanese dainties, which bad an elegant taste .to our palates, for more than a month had passed since we had tasted this class of food. The older students waited on us, and you could see "thanks" written on their faces, while their eyes fairly sparkled as they passed about serving the dainties. In bashful respect they shook our hands, ex- claiming, "Dom origato goyaimasu," or "I thank you very much." The lady school mistress was as bright a lady as I ever saw, and the girls were pretty, bright and interesting. LIFE IN JAPAN. 601 We left the school with the best of feelings, and they then requested us to visit the place of cherry blossoms. The people here go clean wild over flowers, and at this time of year, the trees are loaded. They took us twelve miles west of Tokyo. Go- ing by train to Sakai station, we walked from there to the next station through a lovely country of beautiful fields. The path, three feet wide, wound around in a perfect wilderness of flowers whijh blossomed everywhere, making it a paradise ideal. Thus we spent an hour. We entered a town whose main street is divided in the center by a beautiful stream whose banks are lined with lovely cherry trees over three hundred years old. By one of these old cherry trees we had a picture taken. Three of us climbed into the tree, while the remainder were grouped under its spreading branches. We continued up this stream for more than a mile. All along the street were refreshment rooms. The men, sad to say, get drunk sometimes. They have a gourd which each one carries to drink from, and one never sees them drink from a bottle as is the case in America. These gourds. are large and small, and are tied on a stick and put over the shoulder, so^that the men make "no bones" about displaying their bottles, so to speak. When we had seen all the flowers, we started to the station, and being in a hurry, we boys took off our coats and started to walk, while the ladies rode in rikishas. We had not gone far when we decided to change with the rikisha men. Each of us five boys took a jinrikisha. Sister Ensign being the heaviest in the lot, I had her. How the natives did laugh! At the distance of about two blocks we gave up the job. We were still a mile from the station, and as the time was short, the men began to trot. Each of us boys caught hold of the rikisha and trotted along with the men to the station where the combination attracted consider- able attention. The ride in return was through a lovely country of rice fields. Each field is separated from its neighbor by a narrow wall of earth upon which is a foot-wide path. A misstep would sink you into a nice, marshy rice field. At this time of the year, wheat is eighteen inches high, and the whole country is clothed in the mantle of spring. They do not irrigate here, for it rains so very much that all the watering is done by nature. You see small — 602 IMPROVEMENT ERA. groves here, with paths permeating them as even as a well- laid sidewalk; while if you should look at this same grove, and only see the tops of the trees, you would imagine it impossible to penetrate its dense foliage. Many trees here have foliage only at the top, while their trunks are as clean as a pole. In the course of ninety minutes, in which we traveled twelve miles by rail, we reached Tokyo, where we took our baths, rubbed ourselves with alcohol and were soon at rest, arising on the Monday morning as fresh as ever. We all enjoyed the trip very much, and it gave us boys a glimpse of what is before us when we must go out into the country, two and two, to promulgate the gospel, which is quite another story. But it is by overcoming our hardships and trials that we grow strong, and with this view before me, I am pleased and happy to begin active work here. I realize that we will not have smooth sail- ing all the time, for representing the Church, and bearing the name we do, will bring on opposition and hatred. As yet, I know not what awaits me, but I know that if I do my full duty, and endeavor to be humble and prayerful, I will be protected and guarded from all danger and accident. We all like Apostle Grant very much. He is very kind to us. We speak the book language, but when we get out into the country, we hope soon to pick up the dialects. The country people in Japan are honest and kind, and will treat us well. We are all in the best of health, and are as happy as can be, and we send kind greetings to the people at home. CHARITY. 0, charity, thou blessed word! Possess it ev'ry heart! An emblem of God's perfect love — ^ Of him a counterpart. George W. Crocheron. — TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. VIII— A TRADE. The most useful man is the best educated man. Elhert Hubbard. Learn a good trade and it will he your support when your friends und money are gone. An old Hebrew maxim says: "He who does not teach his son a trade, teaches him to steal." This saying was meant in a gen- eral sense as applied to industry, and the dignity of self-sustenance. It is conspicuous in that it comes from a race that has been the bankers of the world for many ages; and behind it lies the prin- ciple of power with that people. The same race has another adage of equal veracity: "Labor honors those who labor." The attention of the reader is called to the fact that honest and intelligent labor has always been the true source of prosperity and happiness. If any young man is today looking forth to a career, let him know, as he stands upon its threshhold, that there is no honorable way to success except by genuine work. Nearly every man must live by one of two methods, thrift or theft. If he eats the fruits of others' toil, and gives them nothing in return, he is as much a thief as the other rascal serving time for petit larceny. '^Don't mistake habits for karacter; the men ov the most karac- ter hav the fewest habits." —Josh Billings. The growing disposition of young men in our communities to shirk the arduous duties and drudgery incident to the learning of a skillful trade is very regretable. Many of the founders of our cities and towns were tradesmen, as well as financiers, and by rea- son of the success which their energy reaped, have reared their sons far more luxuriously than they themselves were reared. This