JAPAN 5: We’ll wrap up the lengthy letter home from traveler Harvey Phillips.

In this part, the travelers were invited to a home for “a real Japanese dinner.”

“Of course we had to remove our shoes on entering the home of the Japanese, one always does before going into any Japanese interior. We sat on the floor cross-legged and ate with chopsticks. The meal was cooked in a small chafing dish (electric) in front of us. The chief dish was called “Sukiyuki,” a winter dish and very good. After we had finished we were taken around the house — how cold it was — just like all Japanese homes. No furniture of any sort, rooms bare with here and there a Japanese print on the wall, matting on the floor, but little else.”

The next day, their Princeton classmate took them shopping before they returned to Kobe, where they had just a day-and-a-half before their ship sailed.

“My impressions of Japan are: It is a country greatly overrated at home.” He spoke at length about its military and global position. “On the other hand, Japan is nice to travel in, but I think one month in Japan would be sufficient for a lifetime. Then it should be in cherry-blossom time preferably. The city at which to stay is Kyoto. Lake Hakone and the district around Fujiyama give you a good idea of the country life as well as the mountainous part. Kyoto gives you the temples, shrines and city life. The rest is more or less the same. The cute children in native dress are one of the most attractive things about Japan.”

And the people, he wrote, went out of their way to be kind.