“The furniture in this country is as simple as the style of building. Neither cupboards, bureaus, sofas, beds, tables, chairs, clocks, looking-glasses, nor anything else of the kind, is to be seen. To the greater part of these the Japanese are utter strangers. Their soft floor-mats serve them for chairs. A small table, or rather salver, about twelve inches square and four high, is set before each person in company at every meal, of which there are three a day. The food (rice, soup, and fish being the principal articles) is served in lackered wooden cups. Most other nations of the East sit with their legs laid across before them,—the Chinese and Japanese lay their feet under their bodies, and make a chair of their heels. When the hour of rest approaches, a soft mattress, stuffed with cotton, is spread out on the mats. The Japanese have no pillows, instead of which they use oblong lackered pieces of wood. With the above apparatus for sleeping, the Japanese bed-chamber is put in order, and he himself up and dressed, in the twinkling of an eye; as, in fact, scarcely a longer time is requisite for him to throw the gown over him, which serves for dress by day and bedclothes at night, and to gird it round his waist. “Though mirrors do not decorate the walls, they are in general use at the toilet, made not of glass, but of a composition of copper and zinc highly polished, and fixed obliquely in a stand of wood made for that purpose. Cleanliness is a constant object with these people, and not a day passes in which they do not wash themselves, whether they are at home or on a journey. In all towns and villages, inns and private houses, there are baths.” He adds, however, what goes rather against this alleged cleanliness, that as the poor, to save expense, are accustomed to use water in which others have repeatedly bathed, they are apt in that way to take infectious disorders. Neither do their open manure vaults, placed by the roadsides and in the very fronts of their houses, agree so well with this eulogy. At Kokura the Dutch bespoke, against their return, rice and charcoal for the factory at Deshima. Having crossed to Shimonoseki, they embarked, on the 12th of March, in a large Japanese junk, for Ōsaka; but, having made less than half the voyage, they encountered contrary winds, which drove them a long distance back, and detained them for near three weeks. The weather was so cold as to make fires comfortable, and colds and catarrhs, endemical to Japan from the changeability of its climate, were very prevalent. All this time they slept on board, but had several times an opportunity to go on shore to amuse themselves at the inns and temples, the Japanese sailors being always anxious to land in order to bathe.