l x i i I N T R O D U C T I O N T O V O L U M E 1 3 Japanese are “[p]ure souls as nowhere else among people. One has to love and ad- mire this country.” In Osaka, where he attended a reception held by the German- Japanese Society, he delivered a sixth popular lecture at the Central Auditorium. Two days later, the Einsteins traveled southwest to Kobe for the seventh lecture, held at the YMCA. Following a reception at the local German club, Einstein and Elsa returned to Kyoto. The following two days were filled with touring of temples and an excursion to Lake Biwa. A twelve-hour journey took Einstein south to Nara, where he visited temples, continuing west to Miyajima Island near Hiroshima, where he hiked in the surrounding hills with Inagaki. On 23 December, while in Moji, Einstein was quot- ed in an interview as saying that if possible, he would like “to enjoy this Japanese life and style forever. If circumstances permit it, I even want to live in Japan here- after.” In another interview, he was quoted as stating that the lack of a truly demo- cratic electoral system in Japan was a serious impediment to the country’s development.[32] The following day, in Fukuoka, Einstein gave his eighth and final popular lec- ture, attended by more than 3,000 people. On Christmas Day, he recorded the toll of the five-week lecture tour on him: “But I was dead, and my corpse was driven back to Moji, where it was carried to a children’s Christmas party and where it had to play the violin for the children,” the “Ave Maria.”[33] The final days in Japan were spent sightseeing around Moji and attending a final official engagement at the Moji Commercial Club. On 29 December, the Einsteins bade farewell to their Japanese entourage and set sail for Egypt on the SS Haruna Maru. Toward the end of his tour, Einstein summarized his experiences in Japan in Doc. 391. Upon being invited, he had been “unable to offer any excuse other than that I would never have forgiven myself for letting a chance to see Japan with my own eyes go by unheeded.” In his opinion, Japan “is shrouded more than any other country in a veil of mystery.” Yet behind the “guarded smile” “lies a soul different from ours that reveals itself in the Japanese style.” In contrast to Europe and Amer- ica, the “individual is left far less to his own devices. [...] Family ties are very much closer than at home.” However, “the power of public opinion is much stronger here than at home, assuring that the family fabric is not undone.” Einstein was struck by “the characteristic Japanese tradition of not expressing one’s feelings and emotions but staying calm and relaxed in all circumstances. [...] Herein lies [...] the deeper sense of the Japanese smile.” He reserved his most enthusiastic comments for Jap- anese art and music: “Everything that truly originated from this country is delicate and joyful, not abstractly metaphysical but always quite closely connected with what is given in nature” (Doc. 391). He described the visit with the poet Bansui