Letter transcription:

Sunday Jan. 26 – 1964

Dear David: For lack of something better to write on will use this napkin from our last J.A.L. flight. The supplier of stationary must have forgotten this room. We had such a quantity in room at Okura. You will notice envelope is from that hotel. We are now in Kyoto. We came as far as Osaka by plane and then by super highway on to hotel in Kyoto. After the balmy weather in Hawaii this winter weather which is very penetrating isn’t quite to my taste. I hope it will be warmer when we go to Hong Kong next Sunday. I am sure it will be in Bali and Malacca. We are resting after our traveling to this city. Dad has been following Japanese wrestling “Sumo” and couldn’t get the TV in our room to work so he called desk. A maid came in to see if she could fix it. I was sitting close to TV set by a coffee table writing and she was down on floor trying to adjust TV when she notice my house slippers Sharon Howe gave me. My feet were so cold when we came I had put on wool sox and wool house slippers. I took one off and let her look at it. She was quite intrigued. She doesn’t speak very good English and I can’t speak any Japanese but we managed to converse about my slippers. She went out of the room and came back with a sack of booties she is making. She looked at my shoes and decided she could make a pair. I had my leper bandage knitting so showed that to her. I think I helped to create a sort of understanding between us. Our guides have explained all Japanese (however I think not all) learn to read and write English but not speak it. They do not have a th, l, or r in their language and have difficulty making those sounds. We have noticed that with even the most fluent we have talked to. They will say lice for rice. When we first came into the room here the heat started to pour in and it felt so good, then for some reason it turned off and I wasn’t warm enough. I told the maid we needed more heat. She went to the telephone and gave out a stream of Japanese. In a little while she came back with an electric heater and plugged it in by my chair. I think I have a friend. She also apologized for our inconvenience. We have a beautiful view from our window – you probably wouldn’t think so – mountains as far as we can see. Kyoto is a large city and covers quite an area. Tomorrow we are booked for tours in a.m. & p.m. Next day a tour to old capital Nara. Wed. is a day for relaxation then on Thurs. we begin traveling again. We saw the peak of Fugi this a.m. on our flight but we couldn’t see all of it because of clouds. I am hoping we have fair weather when we drive back to Tokyo for flight to Hong Kong, so we will be able to take Fugi from ground. We have been having our slides developed as we travel and so far think we have done pretty well for amateur photographers. We have used 9 rolls in 2 weeks – have 13 left so if we keep on at this rate will have to buy more film in Hong Kong. When we were in Tokyo the King & Queen of Belgium were there. They are here in Kyoto now – we didn’t plan it this way. D. Rusk also arrived in Tokyo yesterday. We saw a lot in papers about R. Kennedy’s visits to this part of the world. The man from embassy assured us it would be safe for us to travel into Cambodia. He said, “Your friends will love you for the pictures you take there.” We went shopping yesterday for pearls. Bought two strands – I think they are very beautiful – not white but with pink cast. The Travel Bureau made a mistake about one part of our return from Nikko to our hotel in Tokyo. According to our itinerary we were to be escorted back to hotel. We were left at Palace Hotel and had to take a taxi – fortunately the taxi drivers all understand Okura – that is all that we had to say and arrived back at hotel without incident but since we supposed to be transported by J.T.B. Dad lodged a complaint next a.m. We not only received an apology but a refund for taxi fare and I received a pearl studded pin and Dad received a pearl tie pin. The man who came to our room was very apologetic and said Japanese do not like to make mistakes. So far that is the only error that has been made on our arrangements this far. While traveling in Japan we are guest of Japanese Travel Bureau.

Love Mother

While we were driving on super highway from airport to Kyoto our driver seemed to like to drive fast. He kept passing every car on highway. Everyone along the way seemed to be following the traffic regulations but one car stayed in passing lane. Our driver honked horn, flashed light, but other car wouldn’t get out of passing land. Our driver had to stay behind because he wouldn’t pass in wrong lane. We left the toll road and as soon as our driver paid toll fee he gave out with a conversation to toll collector. I couldn’t understand what he was saying but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was reporting a certain driver on toll way.

P.S. The wrestling matches are over so Dad is back with a Hitchcock story. We noticed in lobby this afternoon something about a movie for hotel guests at 8:30. It is about Kyoto. I think we will go. We had a late lunch so probably won’t eat dinner until 8 o’clock.

Love Mother

©2016 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
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