at the rows of identical stucco houses, each painted the same: the top half white, the bottom half orange, with a foot-high black number painted on the corner of each.
Alice found her voice. "You mean . . . people actually live here?"
"Those lucky enough to find a vacancy," Joe said. "They fight to get in here."
"Climate must affect their senses," Alice said. "Which one do we look at? Not that it really matters . . ."
It didn't. The inspection of Number P-12 lasted only a minute. "How does this compare with the other two places?" Alice asked afterward.
"A little better than the next one I was going to show you, but not as good as the one in Shibuya."
"Let's look at the one in Shibuya," Dick said, turning to leave.
"This next house is really better located than the others," Joe continued when they were on the road again. "Your immediate neighbors are Japanese rather than American, but it's close to the bus line that runs to the base, within a block of subway and train stations that can take you anywhere in Tokyo, and within walking distance of Tokyoka Department Store and a theater."
"I think I'll probably stick to the BX for shopping," Alice said as the car stopped again. "Is this it? Where's the house?"
"Just over the wall," Joe said. "Guaranteed all the privacy you want except from any low-flying aircraft."
Alice stared up at the long, eight-foot-high wall. Joe got out and walked to the small, man-sized door set within a huge double gate. He unlocked it, and Pete bounded through first.
"Oh, how beautiful," Patty exclaimed, peering through the gate.
"Hurrah," Pete yelled. "No lawn to mow!"
"No lawn?" Alice muttered. "In all that space?" She hurried in. "What on earth is all this for," she asked, walking onto the white sand.
"High-class Japanese rock garden," Joe explained, waving his hand toward the expanse of white, at the far left of which were set several large, odd-shaped boulders and lava stone. "Is considered very esthetic; rich Japanese maybe sit all day admiring shapes, meditating." He saw no humor in Alice's eyes, and switched back from pidgin English. "Besides, this kind of garden takes care of itself pretty much if you leave it alone."
"It's different; I'll say that much for it." Alice stepped out of the sand, onto one of a dozen highly-polished, cross-sectional slices of tree trunk which served as stepping stones. "No sidewalk here, either," she noted, and observing the erratic course which the path followed, added, "Why do you suppose they didn't just lay all these things out in a straight line to the house, instead of putting in all these kinks?"
Joe grinned. "The Japanese believe that when you follow those little detours, you will stop and be reminded of the obstacles in life."
"I needn't be reminded," Alice sighed, shaking her head. "I suppose that by the same line of reasoning they put the toilet out back so we'll have to scale the wall to reach it?"
Joe explained that a full colonel had last lived here and installed an indoor western-style toilet. "He also westernized the rest of the place to the point that it's almost inhabitable."
"How very thoughtful," Alice said, arriving at the entrance, which was unlocked. She stepped in ahead of the others. "Now what is this?" she asked, finding herself standing in a three-by-five cobblestoned area, a foot and a half below the level of the living room floor.
"The genkan, where you take off your shoes," Joe said, removing his. "Until the colonel put in hardwood floors, all the floors were tatami—a sort of woven straw—and Japanese never wear shoes on tatami."
"Not a bad idea," Dick said, nodding approval. "Prevents tracking sand all over the house."
"What's this crazy arrangement with the sliding doors and screens all around the house?" Alice asked, unimpressed, as Joe admitted them to the living room.
"That's part Japanese, too," Ginger said. "Originally, these 'doors' were all shoji-screen—opaque paper, like you still have in front of the bedrooms. The living room faces south across the rock garden, so there's always some sun —and it provides light through the shoji-screen."
"The Japanese keep the shoji up in the winter, for warmth," Joe said. "In the summer, they slide the shoji back and have just the screens up, to let air in. The colonel took down the shoji along the living room here and put in glass instead—for a picture window—and put in air conditioning so it's about as modern as you can get."
To Joe's surprise, Alice seemed almost delighted. "It might take some getting used to, but it's clever, isn't it, Dick?"
Dick nodded. Joe resumed his sales pitch until Pete came running in from outside, his shoes sprinkling white sand generously across the living room floor. "Hey, Dad! Did you notice the keen wall?"
"What about it?"
"Like the Great Wall of China, I'll bet!" Pete panted. "A whole bunch of spikes and broken glass cemented in, all along the top of it!"
Alice peered out the door. "Why, it is, Dick! Just look! Why is that? Is this a bad neighborhood?" She turned to Joe for an answer.
"Might have been, 30 or 40 years ago," Joe said. "Rich Japanese built walls like that to protect their valuables back when there wasn't much police protection. Not so discouraging as a moat filled with alligators, of course, but it does make a person think twice about climbing over."
"I see," said Alice. "And how's the police protection these days?"
Joe shrugged. This was a poor time to give his personal opinion of the Japanese police. "Better, I guess. The Prime Minister's house is quite a bit newer, and it doesn't have spikes on the wall."
"What Prime Minister?" Dick asked.
"The Prime Minister of Japan," Ginger spoke up. "His 'town house' is located just across the intersection."
Patty came running back to the living room from her indoor explorations, squealing happily. "Mother! You've just got to see this darling bathroom! It has the cutest little bath tub." And she went off again, dragging Alice by the hand.
Joe winked at Ginger. In a moment, both Patty and Alice returned, and Alice was all but doubled over with laughter.
"Oh, Dick," she gasped, "it's just horrid! The bath tub's about five feet deep and two feet across; you can't even sit in it, much less lie down! Like a shower that fills up around you!"
"Hey, that sounds like fun!"
"You'd need a ladder to get in and out," Alice continued, holding her jaw to keep from laughing. "But Patty thinks it's wonderful, so I guess I do, too!"
"I like it here," Patty bubbled enthusiastically. "Can we live here, Dad? Please?"
Joe was $150 happier than Patty when Dick, after a final exchange of glances with Alice, agreed. But he knew better than to expect they'd all live happily ever after, anywhere in Japan. Not this crew.
3
