“The Bugiō takes possession of the best apartment after ours. The several rooms next to our own are taken up by the Dōshin, interpreters, and other chief officers of our retinue, in order to be always near at hand to watch our conduct, and to care that none of our landlord’s domestics nor any other person presume to come into our apartment, unless it be by their leave and in their presence; and in their absence they commit this care to some of their own or our servants; though all the companions of our voyage in general are strictly charged to have a watchful eye over us. Those who exceed their fellow-servants in vigilance are, by way of encouragement, permitted to make the journey again the next year. Otherwise they stand excluded for two years. “As soon as we have taken possession of our apartment, in comes the landlord with some of his chief male domestics, each with a dish of tea in his hand, which they present to every one of us with a low bow, according to his rank and dignity, and repeating, with a submissive, deep-fetched voice, the words, _ah! ah! ah!_ They are all clad in their garments of ceremony, which they wear only upon great occasions, and have each a short scymetar stuck in his girdle, which they never quit, so long as the company stays in the house. This done, the necessary apparatus for smoking is brought in, consisting of a board of wood or brass, though not always of the same structure, upon which are placed a small fire-pan with coals, a pot to spit in, a small box filled with tobacco cut small, and some long pipes with small brass heads; as also another japanned board, or dish, with _Sakana_,[8] that is, something to eat, as, for instance, several sorts of fruits, figs, nuts, several sorts of cakes, chiefly manjū, and rice cakes hot, several sorts of roots boiled in water, sweetmeats, and other trumperies of this kind. All these things are brought first into the Bugiō’s room, then into ours. As to other necessaries travellers may have occasion for, they are generally, in the case of native travellers, served by the house-maids. These wenches also wait at table, taking that opportunity to engage their guests to further favors. But it is quite otherwise with us; for even the landlords themselves and their male domestics, after they have presented us with a dish of tea, as above said, are not suffered upon any account whatever to enter our apartments; but whatever we want it is the sole business of our own servants to provide us with.