The streets are thoroughly drained, for not only are there surface gutters, but deep drains which carry all the filth into the sea.  Here, again, they are in advance of many civilised people.  Some of the best houses are built of stone, but they are usually constructed of a framework of bamboo and laths, which is covered with plaster painted black and white in diagonal lines.  The roofs are composed of black and white tiles; the eaves extending low down to protect the interior from the sun, and the oiled-paper windows from the rain.  They are, generally, of but one story.  Some of the residences stand back from the street with a court-yard before them, and have gardens behind.  The fronts of the shops have movable shutters, and behind these are sliding panels of oiled-paper or lattices of bamboo, to secure privacy when required.  In the interior of the houses is a framework raised two feet from the ground, divided by sliding panels into several compartments, and spread with stuffed mats; it is the guest, dining, and sleeping-room of private houses, and the usual workshop of handicraftsmen--a house within a house.  When a nobleman travelling stops at a lodging-house, his banner is conspicuously displayed outside, while the names of inferior guests are fastened to the door-posts.  The doctor made a capital sketch of a scene we saw when looking into the interior of a Japanese house--a servant apparently feeding two children.