qɒmʇoƨ

Speaking of mirrors, the Japanese have a great respect for them and, in old-fashioned inns, one often finds them hooded with fabric covers when not in use. He said: “Mirrors make a room uncozy.” I am sure there is more to it than that although they love to be cozy. One must love coziness if one is to live so close together. But, as if in celebration of the thing they feared, they seemed to have made the entire city into a cold hall of mirrors which continually proliferated whole galleries of constantly changing appearances, all marvelous but none tangible. if thy did not lock up the real looking-glasses, it would be hard to tell what was really and what was not. Even buildings one had taken for substantial had a trick of disappearing overnight. One morning, we woke to find the house next doo reduced to nothing but a heap of sticks and a pile of newspapers neatly tied with string, left out for the garbage collector.   

Angela Carter / A Souvenir of Japan