In Tokyo the members of the party were guests
at a reception given by the Japan American So
ciety at the Peers Club, with Prince Tokugawa act
ing as host. The ancestors of Prince Tokugaga
were among the early military rulers, or shoguns,
of Japan. Ancestors of course are worshipped in
Japan, and many of the nobles can trace their
lineage back, not the three hundred or so years that
we figure in America from the date of the May
flower's arrival, but a thousand to several thousand
years.
We did a little shopping in one of the large
department stores of the city, a store that would
do credit to any city in the United States. In fact,
there are at least three stores in Tokyo that would
not have to be ashamed of a comparison with
Marshall Field’s in Chicago.
Boarding the night train out of Tokyo for Kyoto,
we came down the Japanese coast to Kyoto, this
beautiful typically Japanese town, the ancient capi
tal of Japan. It has a population of over a mil
lion, and bears evidence of a gradual modernization.
When you consider that prior to 1868, it was the
capital of the Japanese empire continuously for
over a thousand years, one can appreciate that
changes do not come overnight. The city is full
of shrines, palaces and temples, most important
of which is, to be sure, the Imperial Palace itself,
now used only at intervals by the Imperial family.
We visited the palace, and through the medium
of a friendly and interested guide, the various
spacious rooms and decorations were explained to us.
The present Emperor's coronation was held here
amid the beautiful simplicity of the great palace,
with its gardens, and its broad ceremonial grounds.
