Excerpt from The Land of the Tatami: Travels in Japan To be hated it needs but to be seen - then loved - then caressed. And, oh How comfortable it is. The little rascal sees the baby born and the Old grandfather die on his bosom. He is all things to all men. In sober truth, from the holiest of Temples, in silent Worship, to the wildest orgies Of sak and geisha, he is the constant and faithful companion. With reverence he is trodden by bare but always clean feet shoes he does not tolerate. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.