It has three floors; The library is very rich, for starters; Most of the books are in many copies, since it is often necessary to give them to catechists and priests. There are many Japanese translations from the Holy Fathers as well; Local teachers who studied in Russian academies translate. In general, the mission has a special commission for translation from Russian and English. His Grace advised us to invite priests, teachers, translators, and others to dinner to get to know them, which we arranged in several receptions. Academicians, unfortunately, are somewhat similar to our Russian academicians, that is, with the usual lack of seriousness and devotion to church work, only in an even worse or, better said, petty childish form, since they have only been adopted from Russian students; but this does not need to be said about everyone; There are also very serious ones, but the trouble is that none of them wants to be a priest and a missionary in the narrow sense. There is only one of the old candidates for the Kiev Academy, a priest in Kyoto. The seminary is headed by the still young candidate Kawamoto. Among the translators there are very good ones; they are, perhaps, better than the candidates (for they have not yet seen anything Russian of low rank). The clergy here are all good and moral, but, with a few exceptions, not quite rich in gifted people. However, everyone does his job properly, diligently and well.

I also saw the very first Christian, the priest Father Pavel Sawabe. At first, he was a swordsman and traveled from city to city, challenging for a competition, for which he was very famous throughout Japan; then he became a Shinto priest and was distinguished in this regard by fanaticism. At that time, news about Christianity was just beginning in Japan, but it was in complete suppression and even persecution by the authorities. However, Bishop Nicholas, having already completely studied the Japanese speech, decided to begin the work of preaching little by little. He often went to Buddhists and Shinto temples in order to make acquaintance with priests or with the Japanese in general, of course, little by little starting a conversation about Christ. And so Paul Sawabe was the first person whom God decided to make a worker in His field. In his stubborn fanaticism, he looked sideways at His Grace Nicholas for a long time, and once he came to him and said: "What are you talking about some Christ?" – and began to angrily scold him for this. His Grace remarked to him: "Why are you angry? You don't even know what I'm saying; first listen, and then speak." "Well, speak," the fanatic Sawabe remarked angrily. And His Grace spoke to him about sin, about salvation in Christ, about God in general, and so on, and then offered Sawaba the Gospel to acquaint him with the new teaching.

Sawabe angrily took it and still grumbled away. The next day he came again and asked him to speak about the new faith, although he still seemed to be only an outside observer, and therefore glanced sideways at His Grace and angrily questioned him; His Grace explained to him all the Holy History and so on in order, and Sawabe carefully wrote it all down and then pondered it on his own at home, bringing to His Grace a mass of all sorts of questions, objections, and perplexities on this matter in the morning. Later Sawabe said that he did all this secretly and mainly read and wrote in a Shinto temple, conducting a divine service, at which he held a Christian Bible in front of him instead of a pagan prayer book, and secretly from everyone and without involuntarily attracting anyone's curiosity, he slowly became acquainted with the new teaching that was brought by the previously hated Nicholas. This lasted for a long time, and it was this stubborn priest of paganism who became an Orthodox Christian Paul (in the name of the Apostle Paul due to the similarity of fate).

Even before baptism, he himself began a secret sermon, and soon three of them were Christians. His Grace hastily translated the rite of baptism and secretly baptized them in the courtyard of the consular psalmist.

But immediately they, the baptized, had to flee from the persecution of the government. Sawabe Paul fled and on the road came across soldiers who considered him a spy (and then the war between the north and south of Japan for the liberation of imperial power began) and captured him; in prison they examined him all over and found notes on which he wrote down the lessons of His Grace about Christianity. The soldiers looked at him and drove him away, but the next day they themselves came to ask him about the new teaching, which greatly interested them, and they listened to him long and attentively about Christ. But it seems that there was no fruit from this sermon of his. And then the outbreak of the international war distracted the attention of the government from the persecution of Christianity, so that Sawabe was free and became a zealous assistant to His Grace in preaching, and then he was made the first priest from the Japanese. Thus began Christianity here by the grace of God, which makes up for the weak and the weak, and compares mountains and hills. Now Father Pavel Sawabe is already an old man, 62 years old, the same age as the Holy One, but he looks like an old man in front of him. Now he has a son, Alexei, a priest, and very religious and active, like his father. They are both priests at another church in Tokyo for Christians on the other side of the city.

We visited everyone: priests, candidates, and some catechists in their homes. The structure of a Japanese house is as follows. A wooden lattice opens from the courtyard, the door of which is so low that it is absolutely necessary to enter with a curve: after all, Japanese life is almost entirely filled with bows and squats, so the Japanese, already entering the house, bow and bend, and the person who meets him sits on his knees and, hissing out of courtesy, grovels on the ground, as if to say: I am such a little man in front of you, that I am not worthy to stand on a par with you. This is the most respectful reception in accordance with the European standing up when meeting. Behind the outer grille, in a very narrow square porch, it is imperative to take off your boots and leave them here, because the Japanese do not have shoes, they walk on wooden benches and they are taken off in this porch and remain in very clean socks.

Therefore, the floors in the house are covered with mats (for the rich with carpets) the cleanest. Almost usually a house consists of four departments: a reception room, an honorary hall, a bedroom and a kitchen. In the hall there is a particularly pride of place, like our front corner: it goes deep into one of the walls in the form of a cabinet open from floor to ceiling; all the most honorable things are placed there: the pagans have their shrine with idols, and our Christians have icons, as well as other important things. In the middle of the room, there is always a hibachi, that is, a brazier with a constant fire on coals, corrected not with a scoop, but with two metal sticks; it is around it that the home hearth in the proper sense is composed; there is a heart-to-heart conversation, and a treat... Everyone sits on the floor (in front of the hibachi) on their knees on pillows, which are usually served only for guests, and first of all greets and bows for a long time with soft smiles. Japanese green tea is always served: tea is brewed in a teapot and immediately poured into very small cups; It is difficult to drink more than one cup out of habit. Tea tastes bitter and strong, so you can really excite your nerves. Tea is certainly accompanied by very tasty Japanese cookies and all sorts of spices. Everything is very tasty, intricate and often the best of skillful European confectioneries. The Japanese almost constantly hold a long pipe in his hands, every now and then apply a small pinch of tobacco, light a cigarette from the hibachi, and after one inhalation knock it out into the hibachi; And this is very common. Japanese tobacco is a thin, long fiber of yellowish color, but not brown red like European tobacco. Farewell takes place with the same bows before the hibachi; Then the guest goes out on the porch and puts on his shoes, and the hosts sit on their knees in the hall and, bowing, see them off.

Usually, the inner wall of a Japanese house is a wooden lattice, glued with Japanese paper, which also gives light, although a little dim, and does not allow cold to pass through in comparison with the glass; This lattice is extended, so that the whole house can be completely opened, leaving only the ceiling on the corner pillars. Behind this lattice there is a corridor around the whole house – 1.5-2 arshins wide, and then another lattice, already completely wooden for warmth and also sliding all over. That is why in a Japanese house there is a constant glimmer of hibachi, but there are no stoves.

The Japanese are not afraid of the cold: they do not wear trousers, but only ordinary low socks; there is no shirt either (now they are beginning to introduce it), the head is mostly open. We were received everywhere very cordially.

A.S.'s father can speak Japanese, and I only listened to the Japanese dialect. The language is very delicate and respectful, like all Japanese, who spend most of his life bowing and greeting people he meets. The Japanese will not say: bring, but having come, and even before the verb "o" or something of the kind to express a respectful address; And "come" will not just say, but will add this word with a few more auxiliary verbs, smoothly stringing them one on top of the other, and all this for honor. If there is a solemn and grand procession on the road, or a servant standing in front of the table when you are having dinner, then the most respectful thing in Japanese is that he will turn his back to all this, expressing: I am such a small person that I am not worthy to look at all this. And in general, the Japanese, both among themselves and with Europeans, both higher and lower, are all amiable in their treatment and thank for everything: to go, for example, with a Japanese somewhere, some will thank and hiss, but for what? "Because we're going together."

Of the priests, the young Father Alexis Sawabe stood out in particular: if he talks about something religious, his eyes burn. For example, S.'s father had told him about the Roman catacombs.

His Eminence took us to Ueno, which is now a public garden, and formerly a burial place for the Shōguns, that is, the military rulers of Japan. In their honor, there are Shinto temples, very richly decorated. A long alley of lanterns usually leads to the Shinto temple, brought to the dead by each prince. No one can enter the temple itself, except for the kannushi (khafuri) - the priest, but only on the platform. The temple is decorated with gold, rich carvings of birds, and the like. On the walls there are pointed papers; it is the remnant of an ancient rope, the origin of which is as follows. One day, the goddess of the sun got angry at something and disappeared into a cave and, of course, caused a terrible stir all over the world - the sun disappeared. The gods were frightened, but how to summon the goddess? They went to dance around her cave, causing her to do so, and at the entrance to the cave they appointed the god of power to pull the goddess out of the cave and block the entrance to it with a stone, if the goddess peeked out even a little from the crack of the cave. And so it really was: the goddess softened and decided to inquire a little and looked out through the crack, and the god of power was right there; The gods immediately seized the angry goddess in their arms, and in order that she would not escape their dances, they decided to entangle her with a rope, which is why since then the sun seems to shine incessantly in its time. In remembrance of this, rope brooms on sticks now appear in Shinto shrines, and the next degree is papers. In the narthex there is a huge drum, which the priest beats during the service. But there are no pilgrims to be seen, but only those who are curious to see and must be provincial travelers; the Japanese have developed such curiosity: he will finish his work with rice, which is his main wealth and main occupation, and go to see the sights of his Fatherland and generally see how others live.

Later, Father S. and I were on our own in Asakusa, the main holy place in Tokyo. There are many temples, ancient and highly revered, and a street leads to them, almost entirely lined with Buddhist temples or monasteries; At one such small church, in which a sacrificial candle burns on the altar, a boy rings a gong, or a special bell, letting it be known that it is time for prayer, or he himself performs a prayer with it or to the blows of the gong. At the entrance to the main temple, on the sides, in cages, there are figures of armed terrible titans, who must protect so that nothing impure and malicious enters the temple. In the temple itself there are many idols on the sides and all such terrible figures; For some reason, one idol holds the figure of a child near its heart; the other idol is considered miraculous, and therefore the whole is licked, seized, and even, it seems, plucked and turned black and plucked. The structure of the temple is terribly reminiscent of Catholic churches; several altars were arranged literally as Catholic; on the thrones there are many lamps; behind the throne are one or more figures of idols, similar to the figures of saints in Catholic thrones. And the very figures of the idols in the temple are also very reminiscent of the numerous figures with which Catholic churches are filled. In front of the altar table are huge boxes of a fathom, where donations of money are thrown. In the left aisle behind the altar there is a huge mirror – conscience; this is already Shinto, because Buddhism in Japan has never strictly differed from Shinto in practice. There are a great many worshippers here, and all of them seem to be zealous worshippers of the Buddha: they stand before the altars, or actually in front of the partition separating the altars, and on their knees they pray for a long time and fervently in their own way – they say something, making terrible faces and folding their hands into various figures, making triangles and circles and so on with their fingers, and then they throw a coin into the box and go to the next altar. The traffic here is very high, especially since in the neighborhood there is a zoological garden, booths, a large panorama and similar entertainments, where, apparently, there are even more people. We also went to the zoological garden and even saw a tiger there, roaring terribly out of boredom.

In the garden, various pictures in a miniaturp are arranged from plants and herbs; For example, there is a kind of wild forest, on a hill three hunters are trying to finish off a wild angry tiger. And all this is very vivid and good. There is a lot of oriental imagination and ingenuity here.