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.

Divine services in our country are not yet performed quite properly, namely in relation to the rule, since only the most necessary things have been translated, and, besides, the Japanese, since they have not heard or seen any model of divine services, do not yet know how to sing well and do not soon get used to singing, since in general they are not quite capable of this. After all, the vigil and liturgy last two or more hours.

After the vigil, a catechist always preaches, and at the Liturgy either a priest, a deacon, or a teacher preaches.

His Grace himself reads and corrects each sermon beforehand. It is a pity that the people do not go to divine services much, especially on feast days, except Sundays; But this, of course, is explained by the fact that the majority of our Christians are all poor people, and for the most part work or trade for the owner, and therefore must work on the feast day, so as not to lose a piece of bread.

On the other hand, they have simbokukwai, or religious meetings, on different days, at which various parish issues are decided, divine services are held, sermons are offered, and a general conversation is held. Such Simbokukwai, of course, are very supportive and can support parish life, if only they are well guided, so that they do not turn into an empty assembly of idle people, and if not idle, then they talk about things that are not at all proper and unimportant. His Grace serves every feast day, and he left the sermon to the Japanese, only guiding them.

On the day after our arrival (the third day of the Nativity of Christ), after Liturgy, he wanted to serve a moleben of thanksgiving to the Lord God for our safe arrival, before which he addressed the standing disciples and worshipers with a brief sermon and briefly introduced them to us as his future helpers. So we were completely settled in a new place.

On the occasion of our arrival, the students asked us to arrange a simbokukwai, to which we were invited, for which, of course, we had to give 5 yen each. A certain treat was prepared for everyone from various fruits, sweets and tea. At first, one of the teachers made a very beautiful speech, explaining the reason for this festive and joyful Simbokukvai, and then the students (up to 4) spoke, one of whom said: now everyone complains and points out that morality in our Fatherland has fallen very much, which is fair, only Christianity can raise the life of the people, but for this to happen, leaders are needed, And now such people have come to us. Everyone spoke very briskly, according to what they had memorized, although in some places they were confused. Of course, I did not understand anything yet, but I enjoyed the amazing external harmony with which Japanese is spoken by those who know how to speak: the speech flows smoothly, separately, as if the speaker plays on the keys, measured in advance, and does not speak with a stagnant tongue. We sat on the simbokukwai for two hours and then left, accompanied by the cordiality of the authorities and students of the school, who were very happy with our visit to them. And the seminary students, as more lively, decided to arrange a simbokukwai on the same occasion not at Christmastide, but already during classes; and so on the very first day of classes they arranged it, and His Grace dispersed and gave permission, not at all susceptible to such abuses of the school. The disciples spoke very much, but not at all well, and most importantly, there was little ecclesiastical spirit, which was closest to the goal of their seminary. As is the Japanese custom, for some reason they got into politics and talked about wars and hearing abuse, and then came over to us. But all this was, as it were, more, and perhaps the only thing, a scratching of the tongue and showing off in front of comrades. One even read an appeal to us in Russian, in which he said that we, of course, would be the bearers of the Christian spirit that we wanted to convey to the Japanese. At the end of the fun, at last, some kind of comic lottery was arranged with riddles and riddles, and the singers sang various church and Japanese folk songs. And there we sat for two hours.

On Monday, January 12/24, the catechists of our other Tokyo church, under the supervision of priests P. and A. Sawabe, expressed a desire to be with us for acquaintance and conversation. There are six of them. They are diligently engaged in preaching, some succeeding for believers, others for pagans, and still others in the work of preaching. On Sundays, they hold meetings of individual parishes in the house of their catechist; There is a simbokukwai, that is, a speaking and preaching meeting. Sometimes meetings are held in other homes. Priest A. Sawabe is pleased with his assistants – catechists.