Friday, October 4, 1929
One miserable day—a steady downpour from dawn till dusk. I took life easy and read part of the day, waxed heavy with the needle and thread, shaved in my tea-cup, and took life easy. Drank innumerable cups of tea and made bread. The latter was occasioned by being served five nice big fat dough-balls full of this insipid-tasting brown stuff. One nearly sank me, so I put the rest in the coals and soon had bread.
This evening it was only drizzling, so I got a parasol and slicker to go walking. Noticed that several large American flags had suddenly made their appearance overnight—one very artistically decorated with 46 stars—a pawnbroker shop. A number of tourists were abroad buying all sorts of junk. Had to laugh at one woman—”Come here a minute—look—all these for one yen!” I was trying to buy a tray, but it was hard for everything was marked at tourist prices. Finally got what I wanted at what I imagine is about 30 sen too much, but had bargained it down a yen and all other places were asking at least a yen over that. Saw four hot numbers—might have been in a Broadway chorus—two men and two girls, one a dizzy blonde, the other a raving brunette, both wearing the Japanese wooden shoes.
Think I’ll change scenery tomorrow and go down to Ojuna, a small place the other side of Yokohama and not so far from Fujiyama, Japan’s sacred mountain.