This day was completely dedicated to rest, to the dolce far niente, as there were no temples to visit nor was the weather suitable for excursions. The morning I filled with shopping where I bought countless quite useless and valueless objects of various kind, feeding the goldfishes and watching the creation of a Japanese hairdo of a Japanese lady who despite wearing a negligee was not inconvenienced by our presence. Then we all put on kimonos and had ourselves photographed in the local dress which caused hilarity many American ladies especially our chief doctor who is blessed with a bit heavier body.

Especially well did one photograph turn out that showed me in the midst of my entourage who were all kneeling in the Japanese manner and covering the ground with their heads. As we were already enjoying the local customs, I undertook the quite painful procedure of getting a tattoo that required in a four hour session no fewer than 52.000 pinpricks and resulted in a resplendent dragon on my left arm — a joke I will probably come to regret due to its inextinguishable marks. A stroll and an excellent dinner completed this no very useful but quiet day of rest.

Links

• Location: Miyanoshita, Japan
• ANNO – on 16.08.1893 in Austria’s newspapers.
• The k.u.k. Hof-Burgtheater is closed for summer until 15 September. The k.u.k. Hof-Operntheater is performing the opera „Die Königin von Saba“.