Tokyo
Tokyo Hotel, Tokyo, 4 March 1888
Dear Friend,
Here you have your friend Rizal, wonder of the Japanese, who has a Japanese face but does not speak Japanese. In the streets, when I do my shopping, people look at me and ill-bred children laugh at me because I speak so strange a language. In Tokyo very few people speak English but in Yokohama many do. Some believe that I am a Europeanized Japanese who does not like to be taken for such. That occurs often in the Philippines with the half-breed Japanese. The old attire of Japanese women was and is very pretty, but now they want to introduce here among themselves the not-too-comfortable European dress, in spite of the fact that the Japanese women are even smaller than the Filipino women. Thank God, the common women are still dressed in the old style, but the rich ones who are dressed in the European style have a very sorry look. Certainly, it is fitting that Japanese women wear European shoes instead of the ugly and uncomfortable Japanese footwear. European shoes can harmonize perfectly with the Japanese dress.
The Japanese are considered a people without God. I don’t know if this is justified. It would be interesting to study this point. There are very few thieves among the Japanese. It is said that houses are left open; their walls are made of paper, and in the hotels one can leave money on the table without fear of losing it. The Japanese are very merry and they are courteous; in the streets fighting is not seen. Their houses are clean. Rarely are beggars seen. They are very industrious. What a difference there is between them and the religious and superstitious Chinese! If I could stay here a couple of years, I would study this and I could do it with greater ease than a European, because I have the look of a Japanese, and here, like in the Philippines, the European is not much trusted.
I am staying here a couple of days more, and later I shall go to Nikko, Hakone, and other points. I shall stay in this country for a month in order to see and study it at the same time. I’m very sorry that I don’t speak Japanese.
Tokyo is more extensive than Paris, the walls are built in Cyclopean proportions. The streets are long and wide. Japanese, human beings, draw the jinrikisha. I am disgusted to see a man run like a horse. The first impression one feels is repugnance.
Greetings to Frau, the Professor, your father, Dr. Czepelack, and Klutschack. Kisses for the children.
Yours,
Rizal
02-288 [Blumentritt V.1]