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TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS "IMPHO TOKYO"

Imperial Hotel
Tokyo

red between the design, while a man painted some intricate
characters on some other smaller lantern. Hanging from above
were specimens of their work, some lanterns completed, others
in unfinished stages. It was almost exactly like the little
model store you have, and I have also seen China stores and
silk too. Quite a lot of the stores are as they used to be with open
fronts and the sales men or proprietor sitting on the raised part,
on the mats making his wares. After walking about an hour in
tiny streets we went out onto the Ginza, which is the Broadway of
Tokyo. So many lights, music from Radio stores and lots of
people. All along one side particularly were little stands or
booths, about six feet wide and each one had something different
displayed. There was no yelling or people trying to make you buy
whether you wanted to or not, but just the person in charge. We
stopped to watch one man selling ground up squid. He was rather
a fascinating demonstrator, dressed in white and his little finger would
fly out in a very artistic way as he did things. We got there just
as he was measuring the powder into a little tin box, which was
when filled slipped into a bag with several samples of this and
that and handed to the customer, who went off. By this time
there were eight or ten people watching and we all had the same
ambition. To see him actually grind the squid. There were all kinds
of squid tied in intricate loops and knots and wrapped in celofane,
which he would point to and evidently talk about. He did all sorts
of things with the powder he already had. measuring it. weighing it
sifting it etc. There was one Japanese man in a gray cloak who
looked as if at any minute he would pick a squid to be ground in
a sort of meat grinder. We were all beginning to loose interest, when he
tasted some of his powder and that sort of spurred us all on to more
watching. The man really was a very deft manipulator and a smooth
talker. How he could ever find so much to say about squid I
can't imagine. But we couldn't stay all night so finally left

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