JAP GIRL’S IMPRESSIONS OF SYDNEY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3147, 11 December 1922, Page 2

JAP GIRL’S IMPRESSIONS OF SYDNEY.

(By ML Miyata.) When 1 sailed away from Japan on a cold mid-winter day of February, I olt strangelv lonely as the liner gradual hj. here me away from my native land, and the blue evening haze hung ovci £ dear mountains. But aftei 26 r ■ a „d days on Ward ship, the bright morning sun of early March found a amazed traveller sailing up Sydney Harbor. 1 looked around tor the hordes of "black people I expected to see, W saw instead that never-to-be-forgotten panorama. The water lying phimd as a pool, the distant murmur oi the nave, dnn-mim on the shores was like the faiid.” sound of a girl moaning m her sleep. At the same time a movm kaleidoscope greeted one trtim the lan and the water, the innumerable villa residences, nestling cosily on the slope of the hills; sandy coves and mice everywhere, with sailing ships and fame's of all size, and descriptions lying at anchor or moving nnijesti« > alon <r . with the toy ferry boat., gl ding in mid out with the dainty skd ladies. So this is Sydney, a poit ol call for about 7500 vessels each > • • Such beautiful scenery suggests sailm r , in a gigantic garden. I have heard many Australians s.i. that all Japs, look alike to *ni;in. ] confess that for the first few da • felt like s collie Kith a new flock ot sheen hut verv soon 1 began to notio marked difference between the laces of irate landladies and the pretty. Is in the restaurant in which I too iuo-e in order to escape from the roast-beef —that most democratic dr which confronts one on eve v nr low. throughout the land. « n,V first good impression oI dcmoc CJ f i av after mv arrival, yv Hen i "as k 101 l tl,kt .f.pan«o arc Minewhat bureaucratic. } . vitil Put, f was even more pleased wan the working men and ever took t ie opJ«rtStv to it|iciik to any »!»»■ .‘i'umiVjrc 'k'olumkV.V‘'nicy ,, l,kw ofooof'» , a k k.^n;r.,;;i;oo;y 1 , to a Japanese laborer. "Von can never trust a. Jap. , informed me as he sankd own on tin. I'crrv bow and wiped Ins, grimy In ovv . *'\ Vl , v for?” 1 asked surpnscdlv. “Oil.' overvone knows that they a - wavs have Chinese tellers m Jap.

\ v'imironslv protested that lhat "«’ s absurd" nonsense and that the had evidently been culled liom the fact that once, many years ago. a foreign hank in Japan emphived C nese clerks simply became the Chum labor was cheaper. But be onl\ sho his bead, refusing to be ■sbaken fiom anv of bis convictions. -Mid indeed tins amazing dogmatism is invariable c. - bihited bv most Australian workmen, no matter whether the discussion ho domestic, political or international. “Von worship your Emperor; yon think he is divine,” my Australian friend taunted me. , Rut it is not exactly that. althonJi our reverence for him, handed down tbrougho.it the centuries, has now become instinctive in our national Me. Not long ago a country srhoo can- t tire At the height ot the blaze th, schoolmaster rushed back into the burning building in order to sate tin picture of the Emperor and in doing so bo was burnt to death. The photo graph, one of which is in every school, on old have been replaced for about ten shillings ; but it being a representation of tin' - *.Emperor, the destruction o) it would have been as insult to the Emperor’s person. So the schoolmaster gave ins'life to save it. Every Japanese can understand that, and most would have done likewise in similar cn-enm-tames. and yet no Japanese realIv thinks the Emperor to be divine. “Anyway, when the Prince ol Males came here —did not even Die most ar(Joint evDCUI lists Hock 111 till'll l-llC)llS!l lICIS to catcli a glimpse of a ta.ir-hcadcd hoy —the prototype of hundreds whom * they pass in the street every day.-' I asked my friend. “Oh. well. 1 suppose it is the flunkey spirit instinctive in ns all. he said. “Or is it rather the craving in us all to reverence and look up to someone impost-) hly higher than omselxe.s; Someone for whom the very best we have to give does not seem good enough.” ~ Rut regarding Sydney. 1 think her worst feature is her drawing-rooms, which always make me leel very homesick. I well reineinber my nausea when I entered the first and glanced’ around at the inartistic array.

“Perhaps yon feel more at home sitting on a cushion,” said mine hostess effusively,' indicating a cushion on the Hour, tlie color contrast of which was more likely to induce' one to commit iiara, kari than to sit on it. I chose a chair. “Oh. of course you Japanese are befouling civilised so rapidly, ’ she said, as 1 ignored the cushion. “Civilised 1” I repeated in mild astonishment. as i looked around again at the barbarous array ot treasures and conglomeration of furniture, and thinking that a Japanese householder taking possession here, would in one moment sweep everything off Dial mantelshelf and replace but one vase containing one (lower —but such a vase and such a (lower it would be. Am! this jumble of furniture! Well. Die poorest thatch cottagers in Japan would give a lesson in true artislry by a glimpse into his humble rooms. Civilised! “Oh—rr —you’re becoming M ('sterilised. of course, I mean. she corrected herself hastily. But l hen her daughter entered, ami there was then no longer any mad ro annoy my eyesight with the decorations. We went outside to the garden, which was hunched up in gorgeous profusion. and in that it was akin to all its neighbors. In Japan evert house lias a landscape garden --stones am. (pees are planted ari ilbially. here a miniature stream, there a line bridge hj a i mo nisi n g in percept del i I y. Ibis ar-li-irv. peculiar to the Japanese, u jn-

stinctivo rather than consciously acquired. T saw what is called a .Japanese garden in the Botanic Gardens—a mass ol bamboos. maple-trees, some otliei .Japanese plants, and stone lanterns. There is nothing like it under the Min

—certainty not in .Japan. Tarongii Zoo, however, must cause every foreigner to glow with envious admiration, as one stands there aim looks out over the harbor panorama. Sydney is indeed an enchantress one can never lorget.