The servants get up at five o’clock or later every morning according to season. They first open the shutters of the kitchen; the cook sets at once to boil rice and then to make the morning soup. The housemaid opens the shutters of all the other rooms, sometimes even of those in which people are still sleeping. Where there is a verandah, the maid reaches it by a vacant room; but if all the rooms are occupied, she does not hesitate to pass by the beds. In winter the opening of the sliding-doors at the same time as the shutters would be enough to give a cold to any one unused to our way of life. He would sneeze and dive into bed; and when he goes dozing again, the servant begins to sweep the unoccupied rooms and dust the sliding-doors and shelves in them. The noise would startle him as the partitions between the rooms are thin; and the servant, usually a country-girl who has hitherto been wading in rice-paddies and carrying loads of grain and faggot, walks about on the mats as heavily as if she were on hard ground, and the shock of her stamping he would keenly feel through the bed. It is therefore but a dog-sleep that he would get after the shutters are opened. This is pretty hard as in all probability he was awakened at dead of night by the rats careering on the ceiling, which, being open between the outwalls of the house, is their happy hunting-ground. In fact, the Japanese house, with its thin walls and sliding-doors, is extremely noisy, sounds from outside being heard as clearly as if they came from another part of the house. Happily for us, however, having been habituated to them from childhood, we are able to close our ears to such customary noises. The family rise an hour or so after the servants. In that time the breakfast is got ready, and the sitting-room has been swept and put tidy; and that is all we want for the while. We go out upon a verandah, generally one close to the sitting-room, or into the bath-room if there is one, where the servant has already laid on the sink a brass basin for washing our faces and a bowl also of brass for cleaning our teeth. Though the common bristle tooth-brush is now largely used, the old form made of a little bit of willow-wood, pointed at one end and frayed into a tuft at the other, is still found handy. As it is very cheap, it is thrown away after a few mornings, and is especially convenient when we have a visitor who stays only for a day or two. The family wash one after another, the servant bringing a fresh supply of cold or hot water each time. As we are exposed to the cold in winter, we do not bare our necks and shoulders or wash our hair, but dip our faces only; however, as we take baths daily or every other day, this does not matter much.