"Konnichi-wa!" which means "Good-day." Then wasn't I sorry! This was the real thing. I took off my hat, and then and there this little maid and I exchanged elaborate Oriental ceremonies in the middle of the road, concluding with three right-angle bows of farewell, each saying three times that very beautiful Japanese good-by,
"Sayonara."
I went on cheered and thinking. This was Old and New Japan, the lingering beauty of one, the trail of the tourist over the other, and this was Japan in general. When you are looking for a thing you get something else; when you look for something else you get what you were looking for. The trouble was that in neither case should I have been surprised, for the Japanese even say,
"It is not surprising if the surprising does not surprise," which must be thought about for a while. And then again, What's the odds, no matter what happens.
"Shikata ga nai," says the Japanese; "It can't be helped"—a fatalistic bit of philosophy that may play an important part on many future battle-fields.
The Little Maid of Miyanoshita and I were tossing bits of cracker to the gold-fishes in the pond, and each bit made a breaking, flashing rainbow as they rushed for it in a writhing heap. She had never been to America nor to England.
"Wouldn't you like to go?"
"Verry much," she said.