52A Tsukiji, Tokyo -
April 8, 1908.Dear Dr. Clapp.
It isn't two weeks till Friday since we sighted the Japan coast and so you may take all my "impressions" with as much salt as you think advisable. I am going to send to Elsie Conklin a short description of my travels and I will ask her to show you that letter if you care to see it - that will save my telling many of the same things twice.
By the say, I was not able to get the book "Darwinism Today" before I left although I tried about everywhere I stopped, so I shall have to order it and as I know a girl in Boston who is coming here this summer I am going to ask her if she will bring it to me.
Our steamer landed in Yokohama on the twenty-seventh of March and during the thirty six hours that we stopped we were able to get all our trunks to our boarding place here in Tokyo.
But it is Kobe that you want to hear about, isn't it? We landed there about half past two on Sunday afternoon, March 29th. Miss Hoyt, Miss Gordon and Anna Pettee came out and met us on the launch. It was a beautiful view that we had of the city from our boat; the buildings near the wharf are, many of them, such as we might see at home and the streets are broad and well kept. In other parts of the city though, you find narrow and dirty and winding streets.
That first Sunday night we had supper with Dr. Holbrook and Miss Hoyt in Dr. Holbrook's cunning little house. Probably she has told you all about it. It looks quite "Japanezy" from the outside and is very cozy and comfortable inside.
You remember telling me that Dr. Holbrook always was a good one to plan things out and she had wondered if Mary and I would not want to come in there when she left and you know I had even suggested to you that I hoped some such arrangement might be made - We are to go to Minnoka [sic] near Gotemba with Dr. Holbrook this summer - and she thinks that perhaps I can do a little studying of Botany while there with her. Don't you think you can get over here this summer and join us there? I looked over the library, of course, and have a list of all the Biology books. I will send you the list of Zoological books.
Dr. Holbrook has made Botany her strong point and gives a fine and thorough course in that such as I have had no training in. I looked over the notebooks of her class of three pupils and they had much classification and so forth. There is no course at all in zoology being given this spring. Of course, Dr. Holbrook does not wish the Botany work in the future to fall below its present standard; but it also seems to me that it is just as legitimate and beneficial to work up the zoology side of it. There is almost no equipment for either botany or zoology. There are just three microscopes, one belonging to a Mrs. Stanwood who is in the mission and another belonging to Dr. Holbrook while the third was presented by her to the school.
There is no running water in the laboratory. The drawing of the girls is just fine and I saw a few charts that they had made - but those few belonged to the girls and would be taken home by them.
As yet I have not been able to hunt up Dr. Watase but I will as soon as I can. You see we can't get around very well alone as yet for we can not read the signs on the cars and our Japanese speech is still somewhat limited! Monday and Tuesday some friends took us to see the cherry blossoms which were beautiful. Crowds gathered around us more than you would have thought because of the many foreigners that are in Tokyo.
To go back to Kobe College, my greatest regret is that when I do really get there to work, Dr. Holbrook will be leaving. She seems most remarkable to me in her foresight and planning and in her broad outlook. She is planning for all sorts of emergencies in case she should give out suddenly and she is an indefatigable worker. She is also writing out all sorts of helpful suggestions as they occur to her that will help me later. If we could only work together I should like it so much, anyway I hope nothing will prevent our being together this summer.
Our recitations at the Language School have got to come in the afternoons, which I think will be rather hard as the weather gets hot. Speaking of hot weather - reminds me of the way I have been shivering here. Just two pleasant days so far, and the rest very rainy and so cold and chilly! I am all bundled up and sit near our little open grate fire which looks cheerful but isn't any too warm: but then, if it is any consolation, I can think how I shall roast here before the thirtieth of June which is the date for the close of the Language School.
We go for our first classes tomorrow, April ninth, in the afternoon. Such a funny time as we had hunting the place up, yesterday - We had the address of the school written out for us in Japanese and we knew the name of the car that we should take. First we stopped cars, asking the conductor each time if that was this certain car. Then we showed him our "tag" so that he would know where to put us off. We had to transfer once and when we were finally put down in the middle of the road we had not the faintest idea where to go. I guess we asked eight people before we reached the school after having gone right past it twice. The only thing we heard all this time, of inquiring, that we could understand, was when one man said, "I don't know" which naturally did not aid us much. Anyway we had some fun out of it and I thought before we got there that the whole police force would be after us - for one uniformed man came running after us after he discovered that we had not followed his Japanese instructions correctly and pretty soon a second man came chasing us up - I guess they thought the Language school the best place for us! There are to be two others in the beginners class, a man and his wife who have been out here four months and doubtless they have picked up a good deal of the language in that time.
This afternoon Edna Lindsay called. She is out here under the Baptist Board and is also studying the language. She did not graduate from Mount Holyoke, but was a member of the class of '04.
The country here is beautiful and the people interesting the little I have seen. We had an all day's ride up from Kobe by train and men were smoking all the time. The car seats were just two long ones along each side, and in the centre were numerous spitoons over which people in their wooden geta tumbled quite frequently. Many of the people who were travelling for all day bought put-up lunches at stations on the way, whenever it came time to eat. When they came to a station they just lowered their windows and the lunches in wooden boxes were handed in. Little tea-pots also came in this way and when people left the train they were left right on the floor. The fields were most carefully cultivated and every inch of room was utilized I should think, even the hillsides.
At our boarding place there is just this Miss Julius of the Church of England Mission, we each have a bed-room on the second floor and one sitting-room downstairs - there is an open grate in each room. The joy of this house, however is its bath-room - a real modern-equipped one and that is an unexpected luxury here - everyone informs us that we shall become spoiled -
I guess your eyes are tired, if you have had the time to read all this at one sitting - Mary wishes to be remembered to you and I am
Always most sincerely yours
Grace H. Stowe