“We go to the same inns which the princes and lords of the country resort to, that is, to the very best of every place. The apartments are at that time hung with the colors and arms of the Dutch East India Company, and this in order to notify to the neighborhood who they be that lodge there, as is customary in the country. We always go to the same inns, with this difference only, that, upon our return from Yedo, we lie at the place we dined at in going up, by this means equally to divide the trouble, which is much greater at night than at dinner. We always take up our lodging in the back apartment of the house, which is by much the pleasantest; also otherwise, as has been mentioned, reckoned the chief. The landlord observes the same customs upon our arrival as upon the arrival of the princes and lords of the empire. He comes out of the town or village into the fields to meet us, clad in a kamishimo, or garment of ceremony, and wearing a short scymetar stuck in his girdle, making his compliments with a low bow, which before the norimono of the Bugiō and our Resident is so low, that he touches the ground with his hands and almost with his forehead. This done, he hastens back to his house, and receives us at the entry a second time, in the same manner, and with the same compliments. “As soon as we are come to the inn, our guardians and keepers carry us forthwith across the house to our apartments. Nor, indeed, are we so much displeased at this, since the number of spectators and the petulant scoffing of the children, but, above all, the exhaustion of a fatiguing journey, make us desirous to take our rest, the sooner the better. We are, as it were, confined to our apartments, having no other liberty but to walk out into the small garden behind the house. All other avenues, all the doors, windows, and holes which open any prospect towards the streets or country, are carefully shut and nailed up, in order, as they would fain persuade us, to defend us and our goods from thieves, but in fact to watch and guard us as thieves and deserters. It must be owned, however, that this superabundant care and watchfulness is considerably lessened upon our return, when we have found means to insinuate ourselves into their favor, and by presents and otherwise to procure their connivance.