The fronts of the shops are closed with sliding screens of paper, oiled to admit the light, and the floors raised about two feet from the ground are covered with mat-cushions, upon which, _a-la-Turk_, sits the shopkeeper, who has left his straw sandals at the door. You would scarcely be expected to remove your boots at every shopdoor you entered, but if you stepped up on the platform the shopkeeper would intimate that your leather shoon would mar the whiteness of his mats. The plan of purchase was mostly pantomimic. Pointing to the article, you ask, “How mutchee?” The shopkeeper repeating your “how mutchee?” as he makes a mental calculation, proceeds to hold up the fingers of one or both hands before you, each finger being one hundred cash—estimating twelve hundred to the dollar. The purchase completed, you do not pay the seller, but the articles with your name, and his mark are sent to the government officer, _gayoshio_, when the imperial paw is placed upon the specie you pay, and the seller is apt to get the amount in copper coin. By an arbitrary decision they made their itzeboo—a square piece of silver with the government stamp, equal to a Spanish dollar—and as they could take this dollar and coin nearly three itzeboos from it, it became a very good operation for the imperial treasury, at no time suffering from over-filled coffers. The religion of the Japanese enjoins cleanliness of person upon its votaries, but can scarcely divert the repulsive and indecent manner in which it is obtained. At the bath-houses in Simoda the sexes of all ages bathe indiscriminately together. The Japanese in their intercourse with us, were always pertinacious in assuring us, that they were not Chinese; indeed they would have been very indignant to be thought of a kindred race. They did not take long to find out, that we were not Dutch. They would mention derisively the fact of the length of intercourse the Chinese had had with other countries, and yet, that they had never built square-rigged vessels like ours; they intimated more enterprise than this for themselves. After the signing of the treaty with us the imperial edict preventing the building of their vessels, without open sterns, was repealed. The larger junks usually laid in the bay of _Sirahama_, further northward: those who came to Simoda, ran in to make a harbor, when the weather became threatening, or were engaged in bringing copper ore, from some neighboring province, and carrying back charcoal and wood.