[Illustration: Japanese Girl and Doll.]
They have schools in Japan just as we have. The boys and girls must go
to school until they are ten years old. Some of their lessons are very
hard. They have forty-seven letters in their alphabet, instead of only
twenty-six, as we have. Don't you think it must be hard for the boys
and girls to learn to read?
They go to school very early in the morning. Before they enter the
school they take off their shoes. When the teacher comes, they bow
down their heads nearly to the ground and draw in their breath. This
is their "good morning." The teacher also bows to the boys and girls.
Then the children sit on the floor. They put their books on their
knees and begin their lessons. They have no pens or pencils. They use
little brushes instead. They write in lines from the top to the bottom
of the sheet of paper, instead of across from side to side as we do.
This is the way, you remember, they write in China. The books in Japan
are also like the books in China. The last page in our books would be
the first page in books in China and Japan. So their books begin at
what we would think the end. How queer this seems to us!
There are newspapers in Japan, but they are not much like ours.
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