i9oo3 Courteous Entertainment 



ently the closest attention, though I felt increasingly 

 sure that not one out of twenty understood, which 

 was in fact the case. All of them had a good reading 

 knowledge of English, but as a spoken language it 

 was quite unfamiliar. 



A formal luncheon was afterward given me in the KikucU 

 beautiful garden of the Imperial University by Dr. '^"'^ . 

 (Baron) Dairoku Kikuchi, its distinguished president, 

 a fine historical scholar and graduate of Cambridge, 

 whose honored career later included the headship of 

 Public Instruction for Japan, the presidency of the 

 newly established Imperial University of Kyoto, and 

 finally Privy Councilorship to the Mikados, Mutsuhito 

 and Yoshihito, up to about 1915, when his death took 

 place. Kikuchi and Mitsukuri were own brothers, 

 the difference in surname said to be due to the for- 

 mer's early adoption by another family. Kikuchi 

 spoke English perfectly and with eloquence. At the 

 luncheon I met nearly all the members of the Uni- 

 versity faculty, but Lafcadio Hearn, whom I espe- 

 cially regretted to miss, was not present. 



Still another function was the dinner given in my Dinner at 

 honor at the Koyokan (Maple Club) by Shiro Fujita, ^he Mapk 

 Mitsukuri's associate on the Fur Seal Commission. 

 This was an especially enjoyable affair in elaborate 

 Japanese style, the menu being interspersed with 

 various songs and interpretive "dances." Among 

 the guests were Alfred E. Buck, United States Min- 

 ister to Japan, President Kikuchi, and my friends of 

 the University College of Science. 



In a lucid interval between functions, Snyder and 

 I made a short raid into the old province of Hitachi 

 to the northeast of Musashi, in which lies Tokyo. 



I 15 3 



