Travel journal - Japan 1907

Written by Austin Thomas Frost (RAMC)

April 11th 1907

Arrived at Kobe today ten oclock in the morning.  I had a few minutes delay at the customs, and went to the Mikado Hotel, this is at the east end of the town near to the G.P.O. Shortly after arrival, I went to the N.Y.K. [Nippon Yushen Kaisha (Japan Mail Steamship Co.)] office to make arrangements for my return to Hong Kong [on the] Ahi Maru - the name of the boat which is take me back on the 30th June.  Then on to the HK and Sjanghai bank to get small change for my note which I brought up from Hong Kong.  Lunched at the hotel with Fasken and Macdonald of the 3/Middlesex Regiment, who travelled up from Hong Kong with me on the Inaba Maru.  Taking kurumas we went to the Shinto temple Ikuta - this is a shrine to the spirit of a white horse. There is a statue of a white horse in the grounds.  From here we went to the Nunobiki Falls, situated a few miles from the town of Kobe. We had to get out of our rickshaws at the foot of the hill and walk up about 200 feet before getting to the lasser of the two falls - ther female one.  The approach is barred by a tea house, so that one must go in to the house to see the fall.  There is not much to be seen here as the "NUNOBIKI TANSAN" factory is supplied by the water of this fall, and they have dammed the stream below so it has the mark of utility on it, taking away the nature - untouched, from the little fall.  The 'male fall' is much better, falling as it does into a big amphitheatre of stone with pines clinging to the sides.  Coming back to our kurumas we went to the 'park' of Kobe, Sawayama.  The children make very good use of this 'hill', as 'yama' means, all kinds of children's games are provided, by the town I suppose. They looked very picturesque in their brightly coloured kimonos, and were thoroughly enjoying themselves.  The swinging beam is the most popular of the games, they set the beam going and then try to run across it, and this is not easy to do.  Going west from this we passed close to a squad of prisoners dressed in yellow proceeding to their work, which is outside the prison.  On our way we stopped at a teahouse called Koumatei, this our first one was very well got up, a lovely little Japanese garden was at the back, of which I have a photo.  The museums were very anxious to do a dance for us, but we had heard that it was too European, so we resisted the temptation;  they gave us tea and we stood them a drinkof what they called 'port' but it was made in Japan I am sure.  The next place we visited was the Nanko (Shinto) temple at Hiogo the old town theree miles west of Kobe, it is not far from the railway station of Hiogo.  The temple is large and composed of many shrines, at one side is a small natural history museum, in it are badgers, rabbits, and an old monkey, the manner in which fish are shown is quite good, as they have them in cases each side of a passage so that the light comes in on top, the fish are then seen swimming in the clear water, through a sheet of thick glass, which is one side of the case and cemented into a square hole in the wall, the fish are unaware that they are being looked at.

Returned to dinner at 6.30 and met the Stranger-Leathes I.M.S., they arrived the same day though they had started a week before us - having called at Shanghai.

After dinner we had many calls from the sellers of curios, silk and 'cut velvet' pictures, but did not buy as one should not fill up at the beginning, for there are plenty of nice things to be had at nearly all the places of interest, it is wise to wait.  I had quite a long chat with the ' cut velvet' man, he promised to send his brother to meet me if I could write the date I was to arrive at Tokyo.  We went to bed early as we had spent a long day sight- seeing.  Tomorrow we go on to Osaka.

April 12th

After breakfast we went to see the Kobe Daibutsu (see guide), also a smaller one of him, with a lotus pond in front.  At the back of  this latter is a fine temple (B) with a cemetery attached called Shinkeji. Near was a pagoda, 13 storied, to Kiyomori, an ancient hero of feudal times.  Returning to our hotel we had an early tiffin and set out for Osaka.  We met on the train an old Ceylon tea planter who came up with us on the N.Y.K. boat Inaba Maru, he was going on to Kyoto.

We tried to put up at the Osaka hotel but found it too dear, went to the Nippon hotel instead, semi-European, @ Y5.50 a day.  At the railway station we got our things on three rickshaws and walked through the streets, on our way we saw a number of fine buildings, and a big memorial arch to the heroes of the war on the principal bridge.

Osaka is a modern Manchester, with a touch of Venice in its multitude of waterways, and many bridges. Shinshobashi the principal street goes for miles North and South, lined with shops containing every kind of manufacture, umbrellas, cottons, hats, rugs leather goods etc. - all made in Japan.  This evening I went to see the cherry dance  "Ashibi-Odori" as it is called, at the Yenbujo theatre near the Namba station.  There were 50 Geishas on the stage at a time, singing and dancing in the best Japanese style. It lasted from 8.30 to 9.15 p.m.

We came back through the crowded streets about 10 p.m.

April 13th

At 9.30 a.m. we started for OsakaTown Hall to get a permit from the Welcome Society to see Osaka Castle. From this we went to the mint which was thrown open to the public today as the cherries are in full bloom. The Authorities do this every year for four or five days at this time.  Presenting our cards at the mint we were admitted to see the coining of the 20 50 and 10 sen pieces for both Japan and Corea from the bar to the completed coin - all the machinery, and up to recently all the workmen were English. The Mint is very prettily situated on the banks of the Yodogawa, in the grounds was a show of the Mint treasures, kakomonos, bronzes, and porcelains, some of the things were quite valuable. After we went to a teahouse at the back of the exhibition where we had green tea in powder, the teahouse was temporarily put up in a quaint and old Japanese garden belonging to the mint.

Our next move was to the Castle.  It is immense, built of huge blocks of granite - I measured some which were 10 by 10 by 30 cubic feet, and all were put up by hand labour in ten years.  The keep commands a fine view of the country round and the city.  A sentry and another soldier showed us at least 70 guns captured from the Russians.  We saw really nothing of the 20,000 troops stationed here - a good number were at the field training going on at present and there are still a good many thousands in and around the Castle, infantry, cavalry and artillery.  The hospital is on the left as one goes up to the Castle near the Chino-Japanese memorial stone - it is quite small.  We tiffined at the hotel, paid our bill, went round the shops. I bought a Japanese pipe and accessories in a kind of Burlington Arcade.

From Umeda railway station we booked to Kyoto. It is a very uninteresting flat journey, arriving at Kyoto at 5p.m.  We were to have gone to the Miyoko Hotel, but as this is the height of the cherry season not a room was to be had within a reasonable figure - the wealthy Americans were bidding against one another up to 50 Yen a day for a room in the different hotels.  The porter of the Miyako told us that Mr Young was at a Japanese Inn just across the way from the railway station, called the Kikuokaya.  The inn is a very clean one and looked so comfortable that I thought it a good beginning to try a Japanese style inn.

My room is a paper walled one of six 'mats' that is 6 by 3ft in size.  Each mat is 6 feet by 3 feet, made of fine straw woven and edged with tape, the room is made to fit so many of these mats - 3 6 9 or 12.  The 'walls' are simply sliding shutters called shoji, they are formed of a wooden lattice frame covered with tissue paper, running in slides, so that two rooms may be made into one at a moments notice.  The beds are put away in the daytime and consist in a number of thick quilts spread on the floor, no sheets and a hard wooden block for a pillow.

In the afternoon we went to Yaami's Hotel and dined there. Very little of the hotel is left since last years fire.  A Mr Brindley and his daughter (met them on the N.Y.K.) were in the hotel, and it is so very crowded that they had to share a room with a curtain dividing it into two and pay 32 Yen a day for it.

April 14th

A Japanese house is conducive of early rising as the musumes begin to put away the futons at 6.00 am noises are incessant from this hour, so one is forced to get up, and it is no hardship for futons and shobi help towards a good nights sleep.  At 8 a.m. I had a Japanese bath. The etiquette of the tub is that one must wash outside first, taking off all the soap, then go into the bath and soak for a few minutes. The construction of the bath is very simple - it is an oblong wooden box with a boiler let into one end.

With a little explanation we were provided with an excellent breakfast of fish, ham and eggs etc.  The reason we were able to get things so easily was that the Japanese are taking to some of our dishes, more especially the fried dishes, it is a result of the war, I should imagine, for the people I saw taking them were the officers who came to the inn.  Nine thirty a.m. saw us started on our first days sight seeing; the Daibutsu-den a big temporary Buddha 42 feet high with a 7 foot nose, the temple is collecting for the erection of the future statue of bronze of which the wooden one is a facsimile. Near this is a beautiful toned bell, it is more than 40 tons in weight, the waves of sound rise and fall, and vary for many minutes after the bell is struck.  As we were not yet struck with the sameness of the temples of Japan, we visited the one known as the "San ju san gen do" i.e. the temple of the 33,000 Buddhas.  In reality, there are two rows of 500 each, with about ten smaller on each more than life-size gilded wooden figure.

From here to the Imperial Museum is but a short way. It was the home of the old Mikados in the old days of the Shogunate, and in it are kept the oldest treasures of the Emperors, bronzes, kakomonos and porcelains.  On the way to the Chionin temple we called to see the work of the Gion porcelain manufacturers, the most pleasing is the pale blue on a white ground - lotus leaves, and iris leaves. 

Chionin is a series of shrines on the sides of a hill, some on the flat, others on high piles.  Higashiyama at the back with its pinewoods is an appropriate setting to the picture.  Just now the gardens are a mass of cherry blossoms (I have a photo).  Then back to the inn for tiffin.

At three thirty, we went to the Nishi Hongwangi, the most extensive temple in the Empire.  It consists of two buildings, one twice as big as the other. The ceilings are most elaborately carved and lacquered with gold.  Kakemonos of great value are done on wood and are used as panels, screens and dados.  Next we went to the street known as Teramachi and saw Nichimuras lacquer workshops - I ordered two strong boxes of red lacquer to fit into my pocket  (uniform), for food etc.- the Japanese call them bento boxes.  In the same street is Kurodo the damascene worker. We saw some very fine specimens of his art, in gold and silver, and their alloys with bronze.  At 6 p.m. we returned to our inn for the night, and wrote letters.

April 15th

At 9.35 a.m. we took train to Kameoka the station for Hozugawa, bringing with us O Yen San - the daughter of the house - she had never been to see the rapids though born at the inn 18 years before. On our way we got quite a good view of the river and its rapids.  Getting into a 'rapids' boat at the head of the falls, we went down through gorges at one time followed by patches of pink and green, where the rivers widened, and the hills came down to the water's edge covered with cherry in full blossom, interspersed with dark green Japanese pines.  One hill in particular is a blaze of colour, Arashiyama, which is on the right bank.  All this time, our attention was taken off the scenery by the boat sweeping through rapids, only escaping the rocks by inches.

Reaching the end at Saga we had a walk through the woods which were full of native picnickers, eating on the banks of the river and at the same time enjoying the scenery of Arashiyama and its cherries.

A very popular Buddhist temple is on the right bank of the Hozugawa here, as we were on the left side on getting out of the boat, we had to cross by the 'seeing the moon' bridge (photos).  O Yen San wished to pay her respects at the temple -Kokiji, it is prettily situated in a grove of cherries.  We caught the train at Saga and returned to Kyoto at 7 p.m. having had a most enjoyable day.

April 16th

Spent the day as per guidebook.

April 17th

Today we spent in seeing Nara.  We started by the 9.30 a.m. train, and had Major General Broadwood with his ADC - Bonham. The train passed through tea plantations - the Uji district - and bamboo woods. The tea plants at Uji have shades of matting over them - of course these are only the more expensive kinds.

From Nara station to the park is a 20 minute walk, the only remains of the ancient capital is a long street of shops - the Japanese do not have any city ruins as they are built of wood, and fade away very quickly.  The park is really magnificent, finer than any English park, though it is like one, with the deer and trees, but no English trees are as fine as the stately Criptomerias either in avenues or when grown in rows, besides they are of immense size most of them are over 100 feet high.

The road to the Kasuga Jinsha is lined on both sides with votive lanterns - 3000 of them, in stone and bronze.

At this temple we saw a sacred dance, called the Kasugo-no. In ancient times it was quite a big affair but now is a poor attempt at a dance.  A few girls did it at 2 Yen a time.

Through a shrine of Kwannon (the Goddess of Mercy) -Nigatsu-do, we went to see the Daibutsu no Nara in the Todaji. This immense bronze is under repair at present, covered up with boards, so we could not get a good view of its size.  Beside the temple is a bell tower and bell (37 tons) with a low and sweet tone. (photo). Mikasyama at the back of the Kasuga temple was well worth climbing. There is a fine view of Nara from the top.  The museum near by has many of the earliest porcelains in Japan and tumuli remains - mirrors, etc.

We went to Kikosuiya for tiffin, I got a few netsukes and a pipe case.  Returned to Kyoto about 6 p.m., very tired and did not go out again.

April 18th

Lake Biwa.  Before leaving I went to Horey and got my photographs - 11 of which are good.  We then caught the train at Kyoto - 10.45 to Ishiyama.  One sees the lake first at Otami, passing Baba (Otsu), we got out at Ishiyama, and walked for twenty minutes along the banks of the river flowing out of Lake Biwa, and came to the temple of Ishiyama.  This temple is on a hill, wooded and of much beauty - as all the temple sights are.  There is the usual mixture of Buddhist and Shinto shrines.  One tree is covered with paper by disappointed lovers who come to the tree to charm back the faithless.

At the gate are the two guardians of the temple, much disfigured with paper pulp spat at them, the myth is that if the paper sticks the prayer has been heard, they are a formidable pair to look at. Taking a stemboat from Ishiyama we returned to Itsu by the famous bridge called Seta, it is in two spans of considerable size, with an island in the middle.  Changing at Otsu we took another boat at a pier a few hundred yards further on, to Karasaki on the west side of the lake, here is the old and venerated pine of Hiroshiga's prints.  On returning to Otsu we climbed up to Miidera, an ancient temple of much importance in feudal times, and the site of much fighting in the days of powerful abbots, they raided one another's temples on a very slight provocation and if successful they burned the temple - this happened to Miidera several times.  It is built on a high hill overlooking LakeBiwa on the SW shore.  At the time we went there the cherry trees were in full bloom giving a rosy tint to the otherwise gloomy shrines, as the cryptomerias overshadow the place, but the view from the top is quite beautiful, looking as it does over the lake as well as the whole countryside.

At the foot of Miidera is the entrance to the Kyoto Biwa Canal. Paying Yen 3 for a boat we were carried by the current through a low and dark tunnel (2443 metres long)

Many boats passed us on the way back from Kyoto, they had to be hauled against the current by hand, a job the women usually had to do, the men strolling along the banks at their ease.  The scenery is quite pretty in the clear spaces between the three tunnels, low hills covered with pines, the tunnel winding round the base of the hills.

Tunnel No 2 is 124 metres long, and with only a short interval we come to No 3, this is 840 metres in length and opens at the end of the tunnel directly at the back of the Miyako Hotel.  Took kurumas to our inn, and were finished for the day.  The whole expenses of the divided into four shares was Y 2.70 about 3/4.

April 19th  Kyoto

This morning, S.Komai the damascene worker of Teramachi, brought back my watch with a horned owl in gold worked on the back of the case, it cost me Y3, I think and very well done.  From this we went to the Industrial Exhibition and saw most of the industries carried out, the most interesting being the dye works, porcelain and embroidery.  Returning to Hotey, the photographer I spent a few hours in the selection of Japanese prints, most of those I got were by Hiroshige, one Kunisada, a copy of Moranobe, and one of Hokusai (hawk).  There were no copies of the Chiusingura by Kunisada to be had.  After dinner we went to see the Japanese theatre, and saw a reproduction of East Lynne in Japanese garb, its effect on the audience was the same as at home as all the women cried.  The next piece was a small sketch of the war at Port Arthur, a Colonel Aoki or Aoku fell sick at a very critical time of the siege and wished to commit suicide, on the ground where he intended to do the deed, whilst giving his last orders to an orderly, he was attacked by a band of Russians, the two Japanese without aid defeated the enemy.  The last scene was an old time one of some historical note, we did not understand the allusions.  A Japanese theatre is now composed of pit and gallery, the pit is divided into 'boxes' in which the audience sat on mats eating, smoking and in the intervals, talking and feeding their children.  Usually the performance lasts from 5p.m. to 11 p.m.  Scene shifting is a very slow process, taking in our theatre as much as 20 minutes for each change, the scenery is very heavy.  The cost of our seats was Y one.

April 20th

Was a very wet day, we went out only for a very short time to get photos, the rest of the day we sat and listened to the stories of the life of a planter in Ceylon, by Mr Young.  He kept us amused till very late.

April 21st

This morning we went to the Imperial Palace grounds, but as we had not arranged to get tickets, we only saw the outside of the palace itself, high walls surround the buildings; we came back by the Kyoto Palace Hotel getting some modern colour prints at a shop near there.  At about 3 o'clock we left Kyoto by train for Yamaguichi station, a few minutes ride, to see the Taiyu procession. Our innkeeper had got seats for us at a tea house on the route. The Taiyu are the first class courtesans of Kyoto, of which at present there are twenty-five in the city.  Through dense crowds of all kinds with a fair sprinkling of American and English tourists of both sexes, the procession passes.  Each Joro is preceded by two children with the ladies monogram embroidered on their little kimonos, they looked quite pleased with the part given them in the parade of their mistresses -and I should imagine had the hope of taking the leading part in the future - when they grew up. The kimonos of the Taiyu were most elaborate, each one wore at least six of them, made of gold and silk brocade.  The ornamentations on their heads are just as the print artists depict the beauties of the Yoshiwara; especially Tyokuni, whose reputation was made by the portraits of the then regnant Joron.

Today I had a Japanese breakfast and dinner. The slice of raw trout was quite good, tasting like soused salmon. The only dish I could not manage was the Japanese substitute for cheese - daikon, a species of horseradish with a vile smell and taste, when asked, they say it is no worse than our green cheese - they mean Gorgonzola, which is true but our tastes differ.  In the afternoon Mr Y and I went to a jewellers and bought a ring as a present for O Yen San the lady of the inn, ten minutes after we were each with a present of Japanese pottery, done up in red twine with the usual piece of dried fish which the Japanese tie on a present.

April 22nd

We had a truly Japanese send off this morning from the Inn. The whole household came to the station, each with a part of our baggage and then solemnly bowed and said 'sayonara, o oide nasai'. 

The train left at 9.30 a.m. for Nagoya where we intend to stay for a day at least. Arrived at 12.50 p.m. and put up at the Nagoya hotel, Y.5.50.  we again came across Brindly, and his daughter.  In the early afternoon we went to see the castle of Nagoya, celebrated for its golden dolphins on the keep.  We were shown round by one of the officials who explained the various points of interest to us.  A division of the army is stationed round the castle, and as at Osaka one does not realise there are so many troops in the castle and surroundings. We next went to the temple of Higashi Hongwani, of the same sect as the Nishi Hongwania at Kyoto and almost as beautifully decorated.  Our next visit was to the cloisonné works of Ando.(see postcard).I bought one small piece.  Here we saw all the different stages in the manufacture of gold, silver and copper cloisonné from the application of the wires to the polishing of the enamel.

The last place we visited was the pottery works of Tashiroya.  I had hoped to get a good Japanese tea-set but was disappointed. The trade this firm is going for is the supply of the American market, with the result that they perpetrate in porcelain as much inartistic vulgarity as it is possible. They pile on each piece as many colours as it can hold, reds, browns, greens and the whole smothered in gold.

At night a few of us went for a walk along the streets, they are quite wide and fairly well lighted.  Went to bed early, as we have to be up at six thirty to catch the first train to Kodsu in the morning.

April 23rd  Tonosawa

Having arranged last night for an early start, we caught the train for Kodsu, having had a light breakfast about seven.  The country was rather picturesque, at first we went through mountain scenery, then through moors very like Scotland. At the time we were passing a couple of divisions were going through manoeuvres, the low brushwood gave splendid cover to the infantry.  Our journey was quite comfortable as there were only four other people in the carriage (a family named Milton-King) who got out at Shizuoka.  Nothing of Fugi was to be seen as the clouds came down to the base and obscured the view completely.  Fasken and I had a Japanese 'bento' on the train, it cost us 25 sen and, in our starved state it was very acceptable.  We arrived at Kodsu at six o'clock - we were ten hours in the train.  Taking the electric tram at 6.25 we arrived at Yamote at 7.30 p.m.  Darkness came on before we had reached Yamoto, so it was decided not to go on to Miyanoshita till the following day.  We got a couple of rickshaws to take our kit and walked to the hamlet called Tonosawa, where there is a semi European hotel.  There was no trouble in getting to sleep tonight, as the journey has made us tired and the sound of falling water is to be heard on all sides, from the mountain streams and is particularly soothing.

April 24th

Got up at 7.30 and had a delightful hot spring bath, the water is led into the hotel from an opening in the hill on the opposite side of the stream I heard last night, by means of bamboo pipes.

The landlady told us that a fine view of Fugi was to be seen by mounting to the top of the hill on the other side of the stream, we went up 300 feet and got a glimpse of the very top of the snowy peak through the Maiden's Pass - Otometoge.  The clouds blotted out the view in a few minutes, so we returned across a shaky rope and wire bridge, settled our score and started for Miyanoshita, four coolies carrying our baggage, we doing the journey on foot. It is about five miles, uphill. Arrived at noon and found a Japanese inn called Takagi, run on European lines with beds and electric lights. (Y3.)

Mr Y. (Young) was to join us at the Kowakidani hotel, so after tiffin we set out for the Spring of that name, asked at the Kaikeitei Hotel for him and found that he had not yet arrived there.  One of the musumes of the hotel showed us the way to the valley of the lesser burning as the Japanese 'kowakidani' means, steam and sulphur dioxide come up through fissures in the ground, and coats the rocks.

The boiling of the liquid can be heard under one's feet, the stones are at least 120⁰F to touch and the ground is quite soft in places, with only a soft crust over the boiling mud below. We had tea at the hotel and a chat with the manager, then went back to Miyanoshita by the most delightful of path winding through young pine woods with fleeting vistas of the sea and of the hills and valleys in the Hakone district. When we got back to our inn at Miyanoshita, we found Mr. Y. before us. He had gone to Yokohama from Kyoto, and told us that the latter city is a very expensive one, as we expected it would be for him, he had lost the sense of the value of money, I should say for many years.

I had a luxurious hot bath before going to bed, and slept like a top.

April 25th

The morning brought us the sellers of the local manufactures, with their goods, I bought a number of inlaid boxes and cases made of bamboo, they cost only a few sen each.  Our party of four started on a tour of the neighbourhood, we climbed up the hill over the Miogini river, or rather I should call it the mountain torrent of that name, then crossed the stream and walked down the bank to Dogashima village, which lies in the hollow beneath Miyanoshito, the scenery is typical of the Japan of Hiroshiga, and the climbing is very steep.  In the afternoon Fasken and I had a look at the shops, and afterwards went up the side of Sengen Yama at the back of the hotel, the track we selected was a dry nullah, climbing for an hour brought us to the top, 1800 feet up.  We got a fine view of Fugi with its white top shining in the setting sun.  Proceeding along the ridge of Sengenyama towards Ashinoyu, a complete panorama of the Hakone and Odiwara districts lay at our feet like a map, in the evening haze Kodsu was just visible, and a wide stretch of the sea.   The tea house 700 feet up the side gives a good view of Fugi but not of the panorama.

On our return we had a well earned bath before dinner, two middies [midshipmen] off the "[HMS] Kent" joined us at dinner, and Col. Whithall C.O. of one of the Indian Regiments, came in after to have a chat - he is at the Fugiya.

April 26th Miyanoshita

Started early this morning for HakoneLake - McDonald and I walking, on a horse, Y in a chair and O Fuku San in a kago. Passing on our right Kowakidani, we ascended by a winding pass to Ashinoyu, a small Harrogate on a marshy flat amongst the highest of the Hakone hills - 3000 feet above the sea, with Futagoyama on one side and Kamiyama on the other.  The smell of Sulphuretted Hydrogen was strong in the air and as a result vegetation was very poor and consisted of 'ashi' reeds (Jap). They are really a variety of small bamboo, and line the road for some distance beyond the springs.  For half a mile the road is level, and with a short and final rise, the descent to Hakone begins.  At this point, (the summit of the rise) hidden in the bushes on the left side of the road, is the image of Jizo, carved, so the legend goes, by Kobi Daishi in the 12th century.  The work is carved out of the solid rock, in situ, and is about 30 feet high, the face of the protector of children is the best example of the calm and benign smile of the Buddhahood in Japan.  It is a pity that the tip of the chin has been scaled off; otherwise the face would be perfect.  Descending for a thousand feet from the Jizo, we reached the old village of Hakone Mote.  The others had not yet turned up, so we went on to the hotel from which the well known view of Fugi is to be had.  We were fortunate for when we arrived under the cryptomeria always included in the view, Fugi stood out without a cloud at the further end of the lake, seen through one of the passes.  It explains why the Japanese call it the "peerless one".  In an hour the clouds came up, and blotted out the view of the snowy peak. The chair coolies called us back to tiffin at a Japanese inn at Hakone Moto, named Hashimotoya.  A walk of a mile brought us to Hakone Machi - new Hakone, it is not interesting except for a fine view of the lake, and the cryptomerias of the monastery near old Hakone.

 On our return journey, (the walkers took a short cut across and below Kowakidani, E.S.E.) is a delightful little waterfall, in a most unlikely spot. The local people call it the Thousand Strings waterfall, as it really looks that, though wide it is only 20 feet high.

 When one has seen Hakone the conclusion is that Myanoshita is much prettier and the scenery is more varied, but Hakone is a far quieter spot and more removed from the track of the tourists.  On our return O Kiku San... and O Uoki San had a roasting bath all ready for us, and the usual bath  with a kimono to get into after.

 April 27th Miyanoshita

 This was a wet day, did not go out.  In the afternoon Ryley and his wife came to look for rooms at our place, so had to go to Naraya hotel.  Two typical New Zealand girls called for the Ryleys', and later an old lady who is to have a room in another inn and dine with us.  She is an artist.

April 28th Miyanoshita

After breakfast started on a long walk, passing Miogino, we walked on the right bank of the river in the direction of Shimoyuba. Mounting slowly, as the day was hot, in a narrow path between small bamboos, about six feet high on average, and very thickly planted, so thick that for at least a quarter we did not see a bit of the country round us. In a distance of two miles we went up a thousand feet. A few houses of the type of inns at the foot of Owakidani is that called Shimoyuba, here we had a rest and cup of tea. Mr.Y. said he had enough of climbing so started for Myanoshita on his own, but we had doubts of his ability to find his way back as he will call the place 'Minnishota'. Climbing through the open we got a glimpse of the steam of the crater, but mounting to the right along a fairly good road which eventually leads to the top of the crater. As we ascended higher the effects of the sulphur were becoming more obvious, at first the luxuriant undergrowth disappears, then the trees look as if some were struck with a blight, as the leaves were scant and a lot of the branches were dead, and at the top the remains of the trees were as if a fire had destroyed them, showing that at a not very remote time there was a sudden increase in the output of the quiescent volcano. Unfortunately the day was hazy, and the horizon of the expanse of country at our feet was in a blur, Fugi was in cloud and our first opportunity of seeing the mountain as a whole from base to top was a failure. But we saw a large tract of the valley to the north, and the mountains to the North and West. Turning to the West, when we had gone up another 1200 feet, we arrived at the head of the crater. At first sight, one sees steam issuing out of a dozen places in a barren waste of rocks and sulphur coloured mud and soil, treading carefully over the hot and crumbling crust one comes to a spot with the muddy water bubbling up, and the air reeks of sulphur dioxide, mixed with steam. Through some of the ravines hot streams of alum and sulphurous acid join others to form a big one which taints the water in the lower country. in certain of the boiling springs a system of pipes is arranged to lead the saturated water to cooling tanks, 'flowers of sulphur' is deposited in them on straw, and is collected regularly by the owners of the tanks. Near the bottom of the descent is a very large and active spot, it is a veritable witches cauldron, with huge volumes of steam - to be seen for miles round, and a bubbling of water, mud and sulphur through a number of fissures in the rock and soil. By a system of bamboos the inns in the neighbourhood are supplied with the boiling water in their baths, the pipes are in some cases a few miles long. Leaving Owakidani we descended to the village of Gora and then by short-cuts (chika michi. Jap.) to Miyanoshita, very tired and hungry. The round took us four and a half hours to do - old Mr.Y., as we expected did lose his way and it took him an hour or two to get a wood-cutter to translate 'Minnishota' into the proper name of the village, the old man spent the rest of the evening in trying to say the word properly, and in the end failed. Spent the afternoon in selecting photographs of the Hakone district, sat for half an hour watching the little musume at the photographers colouring the prints, the selection of the tints appears to come as naturally as a taste in the colouring of their kimonos.

April 29th Miyanoshita

We were so tired after yesterday that we spent a very quiet day. McD. Y. and I, (our fourth had again gone to Hakone), walked to have a nearer view of the river Miogino, on its way to the sea. It roars through deep and narrow gorges at one part and a dozen yards lower down it is a shallow mountain rivulet, gently eddying round the stepping stones.

At luncheon time, we strolled back to Miyanoshita.

Another short walk after tiffin to the village of Dogashima, McD.and I lay out in the sun on the boulders over the river and talked the time away till six o'clock. We met Col. and Mrs. Seymour at the photographers, they were stopping at the Fugiya. Most of my photos came out, the best were the Shimawara Taiyu procession . Last night there was a lot of fun with the old landlady and the artist, I am afraid the former did not approve of even a staid and maiden travelling alone through the country, and let the artist know of her disapproval with a wealth of usually accepted and unnecessary detail, the lady refused to be offended.

In the evening I went to the Naraya and met the New Zealand girls at the Ryleys, the two who called for them a day or two ago.

April 30th Miyanoshita

A wet day, and did not go out except to do some shopping, at one of the curios. I bought a dozen netsukes, of these one is a good one - a wooden lacquer boy. I also ordered two kimonos for Clara, though she is only 7 years, I had to order one of the fifteen year old size for her.

May 1st Miyanoshita

Did as near nothing as I could today, a short walk in the morning, and a look at the shops in the afternoon, with much lying about, filled in the day. None of us look on a holiday as a continual round of rush, we act up to our convictions on any day we feel like it, today was one of them.

May 2nd Miyanoshita

This morning five of us started for Otomotoge - the Maiden's Pass, Ryley, Fasken and McDonald on foot, Y. and I on horses with Takagi Sun as our guide. The track lay by the village of Miogino. We kept the river on our left climbing up a narrow road with a precipice on the left, the river being at the bottom. On the opposite side is a dense wood, in it are wild monkeys , but one rarely sees them. Halfway we came to the village of Sentoku, a horse and cattle farm, they breed a fair sized horse, the cattle are not anything particular as to breed. The real climb begins some distance beyond this village, it becomes steeper and steeper as one gets nearer to the Pass, till it is too difficult to ride and the horses have to be led up the narrow path to the top. This zig-zag road led up 30 cho, that is, in English measure just two miles. A cho is about 120 yards, and in the mountain districts they count up to 50 cho before they convert them into 'ri' which are 2 miles and is made up of 33 cho.

At the top of Otometoge we are rewarded for our climb by an uninterrupted view of Fugi, just a fleck of cloud to make it like a picture, with its graceful shape and snow clad top. The day was very clear and the distance did not make the view hazy, Fugi is at least twenty miles away from where we stood on the Hakone hills, even to the base. The provinces lay at her feet and the dwellers therein worship her in poem and in colours. The artists of the countryside have spread her fame, the foreigner gets to look on the mountain as the spirit of Japan. On our left was the lake of Ashinoko (Hakone), and the tooth like ridge of Kintokisan, on our right. I took four photos of Fugi, of them only one was passable or gave any idea of the beauty of the mountain. For about four hours we lay on the hillside taking in all the scene at our feet, from Kodsu on the right to Numadsu and the sea on our left. Our return began at five and got back to   Miyanoshita in time for dinner, tired out.

My photographs of the Miogino taken yesterday, were sent up to me, and were good. The evenings are made very pleasant here by the long chats of the old tea planter who has seen a good deal of the world and seen it with intelligent eyes, added to very much by the keen sense of humour through which he has seen some of the things described by him. We are an appreciative audience.

May 3rd

Our party of four have decided that this is to be our last day in Miyanoshita, as Fasken and Mcdonald have to go back to Hong Kong in a week, and Mr.Y. is going to Yokohama to arrange about his boat, and may not come to Hakone again. McD. and I took our cameras into the woods and tried to get some of the photographs we intended to take in the walks. So we wandered all the morning, which was very fine, through the spots we liked most, Kowakidani, Miogino, and a few in the woods of the cryptomerias. I killed a four foot snake after a chase. I did not know the name, but a Japanese man said it was poisonous. This is the fourth I have killed in this district, two of them being vipers. After tiffin the four of us got a group photograph, as a reminder of our trip together for the month of April in Japan. The group is good and like the old man Y. in his best mood, we signed one each and settled our bills.

May 4th Ashinoyu

McD. and Fasken started for Yokohama this morning, and Y. for Tokyo. In the early afternoon I packed my things. Attended by a coolie, I was walked to the Matsuzaka Hotel, Ashinoyu, where I intend to stay a week. The thousand feet make a big difference in the temperature, at Miyanoshita it was like a mild summer. Here it is a bitter spring or winter. I went for a walk after tea, and had to move fast to keep warm. There are two others here before me, one a Dane, the other a Dutchman. I had a very hot sulphur bath this evening, the temperature was 42C. There is a large quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen and alum in the water, it makes the skin tingle, and I got out a fine lobster colour. The water is not very clean from the pipes, they have not been cleaned, I should think, for a long time, but there is no doubt about the fact of the water being changed automatically, it comes in at the top and flows out at the bottom always at the same rate. The wind was high during the night and shook the building, so that I had very little sleep.

May 5th Ashinoyu

This was a miserable day, the rain incessant and a high wind rocked the wooden hotel as if it were a tree. Things were so dull in the evening that I went for a walk in the afternoon to Yunohanazawa, a spring with one house used as a hotel, known by the euphonic name of Hananoyuya, that is 'the hotel of the flowers of sulphur', or literally, 'the inn of the flowery hot bath'. the water is much more saturated with sulphur and alum, with the addition of hydrochloric acid. The baths are cleaner than at Matsuzaka in addition. The inn is purely Japanese and very clean. All night, rain, rain, and wind. The result is poor sleep.

May 6th Ashinoyu

Rain, rain, rain and early to bed.

May 7th Ashinoyu

Rain has ceased for the present, so I went up to the crater to see where the water for the baths comes from. It is more dangerous then Ojigoku as the crust is thinner, and the surface is very slippy, like marl, though it is like marble in appearance, till one tries to walk on it. My five foot alpine-stock went through to the full without any pressure, and the varnish on it was boiled off in a few seconds in the ground, leaving the stick in a soft state, as it was really above boiling point, below the surface. From the sulphur spring I climbed to the top of Komagotake and had a fine view of the country to the South, from the sea at Ashinoko. When I came back, I found Y. and O Fuku San at the hotel, but he felt it so cold that he decided to return to Miyanoshita. I slept from 9.30 to 7.30, I was so tired after the walk.

May 8th Ashinoyu

A cold day, I went out towards Hakone, in the morning, to see Jizo Sama on the roadside, and sat watching the views at my feet for a few hours. However fog and rain came on in the afternoon, so I did not go out later. I got into a kimono, and read for the rest of the day, and wrote letters.

May 9th Ashinoyu

Today is a fine though dull one, and bitterly cold, so cold that I don't get warm indoors, with only a 'hibachi' to keep the temperature from keeping below freezing. After breakfast I was so cold that I had not the courage to go for a walk the only thing to make one warm, with the exception of the bath, but then I had exhausted this means of heat in the early morning, and I was afraid to do too much of the sulphur baths. In the afternoon I went to Yunohanazawa, to try the baths there. At first sight, what strikes one is the cleanliness of the whole place compared with Ashinoyu, and the baths are stronger and more stimulating. I took one at a temperature of 116°F, I could just bear it. The bath house is of unpainted wood, pine, which is kept in a spotless state, the bath itself is about six feet long, two deep, and three wide. There is a continuous flow of water in and out of the bath, at the lower angle it flows in, at the opposite upper angle it flows out, at the rate of one gallon a minute. Before I leave the district I hope to get the analysis of the water of both these sulphur springs. My shins and legs have become quite sore and red, due to this afternoon's bath.

May 10th Ashinoyu

Rain has taken the whole pleasure out of the stay in this place, I shall go onto the better baths at Yunohanazawa on the morrow, if it does not clear, in fact I expect to go in any case. There is quite a cosmopolitan lot of visitors here just now. When I came back I found a Dutch missionary from Honolulu, and a Danish engineer from Yokohama, the former looked as if he were not far off Phthisis (tuberculosis). He spent his day between coughing and playing a 'damped' cornet, while he sat over the 'hibachi', to keep up some heat in his anaemic body. On the following day to my arrrival came a German trader from Kiau Chou, with his wife, their description of the state of lawlesness in the German colony was truly appalling. The man showed me two wounds he got in defending his property from robbers, all of whom were Chinese. At any time from dark to daylight there was a likelihood of being robbed. The trader usually walked his house all night and on any noise arising in the lower part of the premises, he fired his revolver through the ceiling to as near as he could judge the robber seemed to be. He also told me that, but for subsidy from the government it would be impossible to live at Kiau Chou at the present time.

May 11th Yunohanazawa Hananoyuya (Flowers of sulphur Hotel)

After breakfast I walked up to Yunohanazawa, to make arrangements, about going there that afternoon. I had to talk my best Japanese as neither the Inn keeper nor his wife could speak a word of English, a good chance af adding to my store of words. From the hotel I took a walk over the hills, and had another good view of the country, from the sea to Ashinoke. An American, Mr Hommeyer, has come to stay at the hotel. He is a lawyer and is very much ashamed of his fellow country tourists, they are so unbearable in Japan, he is going out of the usual track of tourists to avoid them. In the afternoon Mr Hommeyer to the top of Futagoyama, getting a splendid panorama of the Hakone district from O.....a on the S.E. to the hills on the N.W., the whole lies like a ... ... map below. Fugi was not to be seen. Just before six I left the Mutsazakaya? and came up here . I am installed in two Japanese rooms, one a bedroom the other a living room. The arrangement is that I have half Japanese and half European food. I will have to teach them the European dishes as they don't know any. I have spoken more Japanese in the last few hours than I have done in the a week in the previous month. I arrived in the country just a month ago today. There is not a single house within a mile of this place but the household is quite enough company/ there is Yorimoto San and his wife, a musume, a coolie and two Japanese guests, farmers from the Isu Province, both of whom are quite willing to talk of anything that crops up - if I can make the two understand me or I make out what they say.       

May12th Yunohanazawa

I got up at 7.0.am to make the circle of the lake, Ojigoku, and back to this place. Hommeyer came with me. I went down to his hotel, and got on the road to Hakone. We first stopped at the 'twenty five Buddhas' near Jizo, it appears that the sculptor of the larger pieces did these in his spare time, they are not in good preservation, but they show the same hand as chiselled Jizo. All are in high relief on a huge rock, and vary in size from three feet to about six inches in height.

At Hakone Machi we arranged for our tiffin, and said good morning to Fugi as it looked out from behind a cloud foe a minute. The lake was too rough to go by boat so we went to a shop and bought 'waragi' to put over our boots, as the roughness of the lake added a walk of five miles to the journey. We wandered about the lake edge till one p.m. and then returned to the Matsuzaka no Hakone and had tiffin. All the time during the meal we had an uninterrupted view of the white top of Fugi. 

At two p.m. we began our real walk, round the East side of the lake, most of the way was hidden by high bamboo brakes, from the lake, with an occasional view of Fugi. Sometimes the path went through thick pine woods, with a soft and silent path on pine needles. At 4.30.p.m. we got to the head of the lake known as Umijiri i.e. the sea end. I had nearly forgotten a plantation we passed about halfway to Umijuri, a better name for it would be a nursery garden where the young pines were grown before they were planted in the neighbouring hills, it might be a part of the gardens near London.

Turning to the right at Umijiri, we climbed through a large open mountainside to Ubago, a lonely hamletof inns high up in the hills, the only raison d'etre of it being the hot sulphur springs nearby. The hot water flows into a pool, from five or six bamboo pipes which lead the stream so that there are six small waterfalls ten feet high always falling. Under each of these streams a man or woman sits on a log and lets the hot sulphur water fall directly on the head. As we passed there were four of the people undergoing the treatment, two men and two women, each of them sat on a log as still as a stone statue and each one of them wore a robe of sulphur water, nothing more. The more one sees of the hot baths of Japan, the more one wonders at the number and varieties of skin disease provided by nature, and at the same time the number and the variety of the hoy springs to cure the complaints. Babies are the worst sufferers, with weepy skins and weepy noses. In the hot shower bath at Ubago, the four people remained in the water for half an hour. From Ubago a stiff climb of 8 cho or so brought us to Owakidani, we went down the same route which I took with McD and F, back down the road to Gora. At Gora I was so tired that I sat at a tea house and had a meal of tea and bean cakes, and when I had finished that I astonished the old man in charge by going on to 'Tansan' and more bean cakes. Passing Kowakidani, on our right I got back to Yunohanazawa at 7.30, the whole journey was about seven ri, that is nearly 18 miles of hard hill climbing. I turned in at half past eight and slept for twelve hours

May 13th Yunohanazawa

Though a fine day I was too tired to go out walking. The coolie went out on the hills to collect 'vegetables' for dinner, in his basket were a variety of things that the Japanese eat and we do not - among them were 'Udo', the Japanese name for Aralia Cordata , 'Zemmai' - Osmunda regalis, 'Itadori' - Polygonum Cuspidatum, some of the others I have been unable to get the native or botanical one. 

A bad habit one gets into in a Japanese house is the drinking of innumerable cups of tea, the musume puts in some tea in the morning and the kettle on the hibachi, and when the tea is used in the minute tea-pot more water is poured on the old tea-leaves and this is repeated many times a day, it is really a drink of hot water when the tea-pot is renewed for the tenth time. I think I took at least fifteen of the little tea-pot contents, and as the capacity is a cupful, it works out to about three pints of weak tea in the time between breakfast and the midday meal, the natural result has come as I had indigestion in the evening. There was much thunder and lightning in the direction of Otometogo, for an hour or so in the forenoon, and in the afternoon the clouds are mounting up, looking as if rain were coming tomorrow.

May 14th Yunohanazawa

I did very little all day as it was so wet, though fine at first, a heavy thunderstorm came on in the early part of the day. About midday I went for a short walk, searching for the different flowers of the neighbourhood. There is a quantity of the flowers of the country mixed in the hills. In one small glen I found the Royal Fern, Wisteria, Chrysanthemum, Azaleas, Cherry trees, Spireas, oak, pines, Bamboos and a number of the many flowering shrubs which are to be seen in European gardens, natives of Japan.

As I had nothing to read but the Japanese books I brought up with me, I added to my vocabulary a few more words, and after the usual nightly chat with Yorimoto the hotel keeper, I turned in for a long night's sleep. I did not get up till eight o'clock next morning.

May15th Yunohanazawa

The thunderstorm of yesterday has cleared the air and given a very fine day to make up for the day before. I walked three quarters of the way to Hata, a village in the valley at the foot of Futagoyama and quite out of the track of tourists, except those who walk direct from Yumoto to Hakone Moto. On the right side of the steep path and about half way is a pretty waterfall, but in too difficult a place to get a good photograph. When I got back I found the coolie had brought in a basket of the brake fern, called in Japanese 'Warabi'; it is boiled in water and eaten like a green vegetable. I tried some and found it quite palatable, the young tops are the only part used. Later in the afternoon a number of the girls from the Kinokuniya came by the inn with baskets gathering the fern on the hillsides, this appears to be the season for the bracken tops.

I have had many talks with the Japanese visitors who come to take the baths. I have not spoken to a European for nearly a week, and can get along quite well with the amount of Japanese I have picked up. They speak a distinct dialect here, a mixture of East and West.

May 16th Yunohananzawa

A dull but dry day. I went up to the sulphur excavations above this place, the side of the hill is nearly pure sulphur. In several places it crystallises as it came out of the fissures in the rocks, mixed with steam. The sulphur is quarried by the local people and carried in a kind of barrow to the foot of the hill near Kowakidani and thence to the railway at Kodsau, to Kyoto. There the chemists refine it and it becomes commercial sulphur. At night I wrote some letters, and went to bed early.

May17th Yunohanazawa

A very wet and stormy day. It rained all night and it looks as ifnit is going to continue for some time. Yorimoto told me that he intends to collect the sulphur today, so I put on a waterproof coat and went out to see the process. The first thing was to turn the water from the straw filled boxes over which the sulphur water flows, and then the coolie and the inn keeper in very short kimonos and big haats trample the straw to get the deposited sulphur out of the stuff, and then remove it. The liquid is put into buckets and allowed to deposit in the bottom. When the sulphur has deposited, the surface water is poured off, and the 'Yu no hana' or flowers of sulphur is put into a tank. This process is repeated for each of the boxes, and the whole is allowed to remain for a sunny day. Outside the sulphur house are a number of trestles on which is spread thin boards with a thin coating of the mixture of water and sulphur from the tank. When dry the thin cakes are ground in a primitive mill, put into bags, varying from ten to two pounds and sent to the market in Yokohama or Tokio, where itis sold at thirty five sen a pound (at the present time). A school of cadets turned up to see the process in the afternoon, and took a number of photographs of the stages.

May 18th Yunohanazawa

I went down to Miyanoshita this morning, and bought some egg-shell lacquer, about three Yen. I called at the Tagaki Ya and found it empty. O Fuki San told me that Mr.Y had a bad time in Yokohama, and had to be put on board his steamer. I also heard that Story N.O.officer had been to enquire for me on the previous day. He is studying at the Mikawaya in Kowakidani. On my way back I called, but he was out. Got back at seven in the evening

May 19th Yunohanazawa

I went down to the Mikawaya to breakfast with story, and from there to Hakone. We had a very pleasant day wandering about the shores of the lake. A walk of ten minutes brought us to the Hakone Gongen, the temple in the district, it lies on the right side of the lake, up a long avenue of Cryptomerias, and is an ideal place for the contemplation of the Nirvana. On the right of the first shrine is a beautifully coloured maple, it was a mass of brown leaves just now. The whole temple is set in a glade of the most luxuriant foliage and the only sound that reaches up to the place is the quiet murmur of the lake a hundred feet lower down. Though one never tires of Fugi, I am becoming accustomed to see it so often that its first glamour dies out, but leaves a sensation of pleasure each time I see it, and always a pleasant surprise when seen from a new position. We had a meal at the Hachimoto, and separated at the top of the hill at Ashinoyu, Story returning to Kowakidani. On the way up from hakone I called on 'Jizo' on the roadside.

May 20th Yunohanazawa

Late in the morning Story came up to Yunohanazawa, as arranged, and stayed to tiffin. In the afternoon we went up the highest of the Hakone mountain range, Kamiyama, 4716 feet high. As we got higher the air became quite cold and the character of the trees and vegetation more like that of England with a preponderence of the oak, ash and beech. From the top we had a fine view of the provinces within a radius of fifty miles, Isu, Sagami, etc. Out to sea the island of Oshina was just visible, with a cloud of smoke from the volcano in the centre. Looking North West, Fugi stood out as the commanding sight, putting every other part of the landscape in the background . The evening was falling and the clouds and mist began to cover the rest of the view. At first a stray fleck of cloud came up, then two or three, slowly crossing the top of Gugi, and gradually the whole was shut out from our view. Then the mist came up to us and enveloped everything, so we quickly descended to Yunohanzawa, tired after our climb.

May 21st Yunohanazawa

I did not go out at all today. I rested after the strenuous climb of yesterday, and read for several hours. Also tried to improve my Japanese. The weather was warm and cloudy.

May 22nd Yunohanazawa

I got up at ten o'clock, and a short time after story came up. we talked till six p.m. In the evening I amused myself in writing a signboard for Yorimoto, to put on the road leading to his hotel. He told me that the Chinese ink is fixed, on a board exposed to the weather, by means of the juice of unripe persimmons. For the last week I have been taking the hot sulphur baths daily, the temperature of these varies from 112° to 116°. I cannot stand any higher,and in the 116° I go in very slowly, stay in for five minutes and come out as red as a lobster. I began these hot baths with the European fear of catching cold after, if I was not careful about keeping out of the cold for some time afterwards, but I soon found that the catching cold was a myth. The usual thing to do is to put on a thin cotton kimono and walk about in the open air for some time, till one got cool or nearly so. At this place the day temperature is about 45° to 55° and always a keen wind blowing, so that a cotton kimono is not a great protection. The real protection is the fact that one's temperature is up to about 101° for at least half an hour, and the cool air helps to get the heat mechanism back into normal working order.

May 23rd Yunohanazawa

I went for a walk in the neighbourhood, on the hills most of the flowers are coming into bloom, a month later than in the Kyoto and the more southern parts of Japan. The little glen I visited a short time ago is now a mass of colour with Azalea and Wisteria. I am becoming quite an adept at Japanese, as I can only use this language. No-one in the house can speak a word of English, and I don't encourage them to do any, as I want to pick up as much as possible while I am here. Yorimoto comes into my room in the evening and we talk for hours on all subjects. We had a competition the other evening, to see whether the Japanese 'kana' or the English representation of the sound of the words of a sentence in Japanese was the quicker, we found the two pens finished together.

May 24th 1908 Yunohanawaza

After breakfast I went down to the Mikawa. Story had gone to Yokohama yesterday, and I had asked him to bring me the letters for me from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. I got two bills and a note from Fan [his eldest sister, still living in Newmarket on Fergus]. I had tiffin with Story, and tea, and got a good photo of the garden of the hotel showing the big carp and goldfish in the pond. I met a better class Japanese here, he was in the dyeing trade in Yokohama. I had a long talk on the social state of Japan at the present. He explained that the commercial classes are coming into the ascendancy, after the ruling sections, that is the descendants of the old Daimyo clans. Most of this conversation took place sitting in view of the little waterfall called 'the thousand stringed waterfall', near Kowakadini. I returned to Yunohanazawa about seven p.m. and made arrangements to go to Atami in the morning, Yorimoto getting the horses and the coolies for me.

May 25th Atami

At ten this morning I left Yunohanazawa on horseback, with two coolies to carry my things. (see Foto album] The journey leads through the village of Hakone Machi and a few hundred yards beyond the village is a narrow path which leads to the Ten Province Pass, and Atami. The path winds in and among the hills for miles, and the view expands as one gets higher up. Hoakone is to be seen as a whole and the country as far as Numadsu. Descending for some time, the villages of the coast of Isu come into view. The half way pine is soon afterwards passed, and the real climb is begun, to the top of Jikokutoge, which we reached at 12.30.p.m. At this time the clouds came lower and the view was not a ten province one, though much wider than I had seen before, from the top of a hill or a mountain pass. Oshima and Fugi were in mist and rain began to come down just as I finished my lunch. I took a photograph of the coolies, the horse and the ten province stone. the descent to Atami begins near the pass. The character of the vegetation changes rapidly on the south side of the mountains, azaleas, red and white, grow in enormous quantities on the hills giving the whole a red and white tone just as the cherries do to the hill known as Arashiyama near Kyoto. there was another flowering plant white. I have often seen it in England, but I don't know the name of it. As we got half way down, the geyser at Atami became active and emitted clouds of steam, which slowly settled over the village and hung over it like a white pall for an hour or more. I arrived at Atami at 2p.m., and went to the Fugiya, one of the best of the Japanese Inns I have been to up to the present. The woodwork is most expensively done in various rare woods showing the natural grain of these finished without stain, varnish or lacquer.

Rain came down not long after my arrival, in torrents, so I had one of the best hot baths from the geyser. I had to pay my coolies Y1.50 each, and Y3.50 for the horse, the journey taking just over five hours. As I am just over 3000 feet lower than in Hakone, it is naturally much warmer, and I have discarded some of my heavy clothes, which were very necessary up to the present.

May 26th Atami

I did not feel like doing anything in the way of sight-seeing this morning. The landlord brought in a cloth merchant as I wanted to get a paper kimono -'gampish-ori' as the name of the cloth is. It is really a mixture of cotton and finely twisted Japanese paper, the paper being held in position by a cotton thread, making a stiff and warm material. I had a cloth kimono and haori made also by this tailor. Later in the day I went along the seashore to the South of Atami, the village is a small one built around the geyser, and extending down to the shore. I sat on the rocks for a few hoursand listened to the Pacific breakers as they rolled in on the beach. They were not very big but the sound was not unlike that of the Atlantic on the West coast of Ireland.

Late in the afternoon I returned to the hotel and found that Story had come from Hakone Machi where he had stopped for a few days. He decided to stay at the Inn with me. A mile back on the road to the Ten Province Pass is a group of some of the oldest camphor trees in Japan. I took Story to see them, as he had not seen them on his way to Atami, and I was too tired to do more than mark the place where they grew. Like the old pine at Karasaki, they are tended with great care as the trunks   

25 May - Atami

Left after breakfast this morning on horseback and two coolies for my luggage. I left Yunohanozawa (14 days - Y50.94). The morning was clear, but plenty of high cloud and Fugi not visible. A little past Hakone-Machi, turning to the left, I mounted the hills getting a fine view of the country, especially Hakone and round Namadyu. Again descending for some time we saw the villages on the coast of Izu and saw the plains towards Ohito. Passing the ‘halfway peni’ we began the real climb on to the top of Jirohutoge which we reached at 12.30. Unfortunately, the clouds got lower and though the view was fine, it was not the province view. Oshima and Fugi were in mist and in a short time rain came scantily. After tiffin here we began the descent to Atami. The country is covered with Azalea and a white flower often seen in England. Azalea in read and white in enormous quantities. As we reached halfway down, the geyser at Atami burst out and a huge column of steam mounted up in the valley. Arrived at Atami at 2 pm.

I am stopping in the Fugiya Hotel, a purely Japanese at 4Y a day. European food. The village is not visible now as it is raining hard. So I have had a bath and am resting after my journey. Horse and coolies (6.50 = 3.50; 1.70, 1.70). It is much warmer here than at Hakone. Story goes to Malsuzaka after Hakone today.

26 May - Atami

Fine morning. After breakfast, the Gampishi-ori merchant came in and I bought a paper kimono and an obi (silk) and ordered a kimono and haori to be made by him (18.40 complete). I went to sit on the beach after, for a couple of hours under Uomi-Saki (“fish on the hook”) on the right of bay. The sea comes in in fair sized breakers, but not so good as Atlantic breakers. Story was at the Hotel before me and decided to stop here. It is purely a Japanese Inn with English food, but in the experimental stage. In the afternoon, went back to the road to Hakone for about a mile to see the big camphor trees. They are very large and decayed.

27 May - Atami

Walked to the top of Uomi-Saki (or ‘fish-look out’) as in the fishing time a man was stationed at the spot and when the fish came into the bay, he communicated by means of a primitive megaphone the news to the fishing village below. I have a photograph of his cabin and the megaphone. There is really a fine view of Atami bay and one can see the smoke issue from the top of Oshima. Atami is rather peculiarly situated in the fact that it is shut in from the rest of the province by the hills, leaving only an opening out to sea. The outlook from the fishing station extends from Manadzu to Ajiro - a sweep of at least fifty miles. The son of the landlord is of the most enquiring mind. As soon as we come back from our walks he comes into the room armed with a dictionary, but I am able to run him into use as in a few minutes quietly answer him in Japanese, but try to get him to explain his difficulty to me in his own language. He did not mind a bit as long as I gave him a little help with his English. He tried hard to talk exclusively in English the first day, and I to make it Japanese, but the next day we tacitly divided the time fairly.

28 May - Atami

About 11 am took a boat to the sea caves a little south of Uomi. They look like as if cut out of a kind of conglomerate rock and are a fair size. Arches have been formed in one place. The scenery of the coast is very picturesque. It took us about two hours altogether (Y1.60). Inside one of the caves is very cool water and a statue of Kanno (photo). In the afternoon walked to the spring at Isusan where are very hot sulphur spring below the tram line.

29 May - Atami/Yokohamna

Left the Inn today for Yokohama (Y15.80) by the Jinsha railway - as the very primitive system of communication is called. It consists of a narrow car - 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd class each having a separate car. Three coolies are attached to a car, and their duty is to push the car along the fifteen miles of up and down road to Odawara. Up hill they push with all their force, and then let the weight of the car rush it down the inclines - the coolies jumping on to the special steps, while the car rocks on the badly laid tracks at about sixteen miles per hour to the foot of the next hill. Going through very picturesque valley and glens all along the sea coast, through groves of orange and pine. The men push alternatively (three men to a very small car) and gravity does quite a lot. With much relief to our cramped limbs, we changed to electric trams at Odawara for Kodzu (S4.5) and then train to Yokohama. At Kodzu, I found my bag left there (at the Aisen Cha-ya - 50 pen for the month). I went to Wright’s Hotel with Story (Y5) and had no desire to do any more for the day - having done nine hours in all sorts of conveyances.

30 May - Nikko

The day has been very wet, did not go out before 2 pm. Went to bank and drew 150 dollars on credit note (100.65=exchange) - I went to NYK office and fixed my passage to Hong Kong. 12Y extra to Kobe. Saw some water colours by Nambo which I must get at Kawanos. Beutendori. Sent film to Yamamura B Dori to be developed (13=2.45). After tea went out in coats to get some books and found some delightful children’s fairy tale books at 30 printed on crepe paper with col. Prints through them. There is no rain tonight so we may get fine weather for Nikko for which we leave in the morning.

31 May - Nikko

Started this morning at 9 from Yokohama, and after two changes arrived at Nikko at 4.20. Put up at Palace Hotel 3.50 i.n. about halfway up town on the left side. The journey was very pretty from Wsumomiya. The hills rose right and left and the avenue of crytomenias follows the line for nearly ten miles. Nikko is one long street let in between the cryptomenias mounting up to the temples which are over a mile away from the station. The journey is very tiring and we were tired at its end, but went to see the inscription on the rock above the ridge called the “thrown pen”, it is in the river bed practically (Sammon ya fuchi).

1 June - Nikko

Went to see the landscape garden first, which is pretty, then on to the Mangwanji - the temple of Kwannon, a beautiful gilt and lacquered piece of work. At the back there are images of the God of Wisdom in blue (Fudow), and also at the back is a copper evil averting pillar of bronze 42ft high with the Tokugawa crest on top. The rest of the morning we spent in the publish landscape garden opposite Mangwanji.

In the afternoon we went to see Futaara Temple, a mixture of Shinto and Buddhist, and covered with gilt copper and lacquer. It is dedicated to Omanuji, his wife and son. On the left is a 700 year old bronze lantern which has a dent on the top, got by being hit with a sword when prowling around Nikko as a Demon. Below this temple are the Futatsudo but are under repair at the present. This was the last temple of the day we saw, but coming back from Futaara Juisha on the right is an interesting panorama of the battle of Sakigahara and of the tribute of the nations to Ieyasu a number of paintings by a Nomura of Kyoto.

2 June - Nikko

Several very fine days, this is another one. Today, saw the ‘Procession of Nikko’, as our intelligent and fluent hotel boy calls the annual festival in honour of the first Shogun, and of his descendants in the post. The procession is the carrying of the Sacred emblems in the regal chair as the religious festivals always use these to transport the things sacred, they are known as ‘Mikoshi’ and are made of gilt wood, carried on the shoulders of about a hundred men, by means of two horizontal poles. In this case the Mikoshi are born from the shrine of Ieysau to a sort of chapel of ease just above the red lacquer bridge. The place selected for our hotel was in the private grounds of a Buddhist priest’s house, but as I was not allowed to take photographs I went outside onto the main road and waited for the procession.

One must not be on a higher plane than the Sacred emblems, and the priests turned anyone off a wall who had got up there to see the sight. The pageant was led by a mask with a delightful grin, then followed a number of various masks representing animals, tigers etc. Next came a number of priests in the garb of old warriors, archers, priests, and nobles, some on foot and others on horse back. Lastly came the Mikoshi of Yorimotor, Ieymitus, and Ieyasu, in that orders. At the lower temple they had a kasuga dance, and a service in the honour of the three. We got back at 2 pm and went for a stroll amongst the temples in the evening. On our return to the town, I called at one of the fur shops, and saw a lot of the skins of the white martin, and the wild cat. I tried to make a bargain, but could not get the martin skins for less than 60 yen. Our hotel was not a success, principally as the owner, a very self satisfied person, with the minimum of brains got on our nerves, as he spoke English in the style of the ‘she is not my aunt, she is my uncle’s cousin’s niece’. One of the most irritating of these expressions was the form of telling one that he had not done what he was told - ‘I’m so sorry for you, but the bath, or the dinner, or anything else is not ready, Sir’, and this is a hour after one has ordered the thing in waiting.

3 June - Nikko

This morning we started to complete the visit to the three shrines. We saw the shrines of the name Futaara, two days before. We first visited the shrine of Ieyasu - to describe the beauty of the temple is an impossibility, with its blaze of colour, in red lacquer and gold, and its profusion of carvings. All the very best that Japan could do, or money procure. Of special interest are the five monkeys on the stable of the white horse, three of them are shown on the usual postcard, but to my mind the five make the whole, and represent the five senses. There is a legend to the effect that there were three monkeys on the first of the New Year who made up their minds to cease quarrelling for a whole twelve months, and to ‘saw nothing, hear nothing, see nothing wrong’. The sleeping cat on the doorpost leading to the tomb of Ieyasu is another fine piece of carving, amidst so much that is good. Yomei-mon, the gateway to the finest and most decorative of the shrines is a wonderful piece of carving, as is the roof of the shrine itself. The appliqué woodwork is a work of much labour as well as art, in the same shrine.

Ascending 200 steps to the mausoleum of Ieyasu. In contrast to the shrine this is severe, thought it is done in the most expensive style. A bronze tomb in the centre of a square of paved ground, surrounded by a carved stone railing, and the whole is in the centre of a grove of cryptomenias. At one of the shrines a curious vibratory echo is to be heard from the ceiling. On this ceiling Jingoro has painted a dragon of immense size. The old priests were a jovial lot and were not above a little quiet buffoonery.

After midday, we returned to finish the view of the temples and went to the shrine of Ieymitsu. This is done in the same style as the other, but in the less lavish manner, though the gardens are more in keeping with the idea of the place. The tomb is similar to Ieyasu’s. Later in the afternoon I saw a few of the lesser of temples and then came back to a shop in town where I spent a few Yen on prints.

4 June - Chunsenji

As we could not stand the Palace Hotel any longer, we left for the village of Chuenji about midday. I was sorry not to see more of our fellow guests at Nikko - an American engineer from the Philippines with his Japanese wife, and an American lady and her family. They were most interesting to talk to. However, the owner was too much for us. As we were travelling very light, one coolie took our luggage on his back and went before us on the road. The first part of the journey was quite pretty. It followed the tramline of the Ashio copper mine from Nikko to Ashio. We followed this for two hours, and then struck the main road to Chusenji. The way led to the bank of the river which drains lake Chusenji and as the volume of water varies quite considerably, being a mountains stream in the dry season to a raging torrent in flood time. There is a large bend to the river and I took a photograph which shows this very well.

At Umagaesi, which means ‘horse stop’ - as the rest of the journey is too steep for a horse, except in the finest weather, as it is in the bend of the river, crossed at intervals by bridges, so that one walks on different sides of the bank after each bridge - in winter-time, half of these bridges are swept away by the floods.

From this point the climb is steep, and the cliffs rise up from the path for hundreds of feet, and the scenery is wild and picturesque. Halfway up to Hodu we met Ryley R.A.M.C. and his wife walking to Nikko from Yumoto. Trees were quite English in type as we got higher up, beech and oak predominating, but to give way to the eastern touch there were azaleas in bloom all the way to Chusenji, white and red and purple. At the foot of the steepest and last part of the climb, we got a view of two waterfalls, Hodo and Hannya. The former the larger is nearly two hundred feet - the other is nearly the same height, but the volume of water is not so great. Both drain snow water from Nantaizan, the peak over Chunsenji, and is about 8400 ft high. The last part of the climb is through woods, till the top is reached at a height of 4400 ft. We got to Chunsenji at 4.30 pm. It was naturally cooler here than at Nikko, and one felt the want of the warmest clothing that one had.

I called at the Lakeside Hotel and found Captain Butcher R.A. fishing on the lake. We went on to the Komeya, a better class Japanese inn with food above the average of the native inns, and the best of that luxury of the country - the Japanese bath.

5 June - Chunsenji

This morning the view of the hills clearing from the fog was very pleasing - I took a photograph that does not do justice to the real picture. We took a boat from the inn, and rowed the whole distance across the lake, and about three quarters of the length, coming back on our hotel side. From the lake one gets a good idea of the mountain Nantaizan. It does not look nearly 8400 ft, nor is it from where we are not as Chunsenji is already 4400 ft up. The boat was very heavy, and as the row was at least 10 miles we arrived at 2 pm, tired out. There are only a few Japanese at the inn, and it is very quiet, and even though there is only a sheet of paper between us and the next room, one rarely hears what is going on in the other divisions of the house.

The situation of the Inn is particularly good, on the northern shore, with a full view of the lake, and the walks in the neighbourhood are very good. Silver trout are very common in the lake, although they appear to suffer from a variety of tapeworm. I saw a specimen this afternoon, it is like Botriocephalus Latus. Some rain came down this afternoon, but I hope that it does not turn wet for the few days that we are here. I have to go back to Yokohama on the 8^th of the month as my boat goes on the 12^th.

6 June - Chunseji

It rained the whole night through, and all day up to five pm. In the afternoon, I went to see Kegon-no-take, the waterfall which drains Lake Chunsenji. It is a clear drop of 250 ft into a semi-circular pool, bounded on three sides by perpendicular cliffs. The water falls like lace waves into the basin below where it is converted into a boiling mass and flows as a white silky stream to become the Daruigawa, which is the river at Nikko. On my way back I called at the photographer’s shop and I bought some prints, seven of them were by Tokokuni.

7 June - Chunsenji

It rained till 10.30 am, but it had got fine enough to take a good walk by noon. We walked along the northern shore of the lake and had a look at the waterfall known as Ryuu-ga-take, or the ‘dragon’s head’ fall. There are two parts, one on the right comes as if down steps or stairs; the one on the left is like a dragon as it winds and twists as it falls into a deep gorge.  We came back the same route through the woods. I bought a few more prints, and a Japanese ink water bottle in bronze. Later I took out the outrigger and had an hour on the lake. I saw the setting sun on the mountain peaks and on the clouds.

8 June Yokohama

Up early this morning and walked to Nikko. The walk was delightful - especially below the Umageshi Inn as the sun came out and the clear atmosphere allowed a most extensive view of the mountain ranges of the district. Just outside Nikko I met the Prices’ and the Waits’ (R.A. and R.E.). We had tiffin at the Nikko Hotel. I went to the fur shops and tried to buy some of the martin skins, but the people would not come down to my prices - one yen a skin. I just caught the train to Yokohama. A long and weary journey of twelve hours brought us to Yokohama after dark (8.30 pm). Stopped at Wright’s Hotel.

9 June - Yokohama

I spent the day shopping. I went to Kowano’s first to get the prints I had in my eye before I left for the north and got the Owl, Megiro, the Crown and the Goose - all for 18 yen. Then I went to the street known as Isezaki Cho and searched the side streets for odds and sods. In one of those side streets I got a bronze mirror (2.20), an iron kettle (1.50), a small hibachi (4.25), a piece of blue and white china (1.50), and lastly a bronze candlestick (.50). Later in the day I tried to pick up some ore things but I saw nothing that I wanted.

10 June - Yokohama, Kakamura, and Enoshima

We started early for Kakamura and saw the Daibutsu. It is very large but the face is not so good as the one at Nara - which is in fact a finer work of art. Just beyond the Daibutsu is the temple of Kwannon in a fine lacquered building, but as the ‘church’ was disestablished it is falling into a bad state and needs repairing. As funds are low, the monks are asking for alms to repair the building. Going over the brow of the hill - walk of ten or fifteen minutes - we came to the Kakamura to Enoshima tram, which takes on to the island in 20 minutes - first class for twenty three sen. It goes along the coast giving one a view of the island for miles. A short walk from the station brings one to the beginning of the bridge to the island. Not less than a mile long, it is made of wood and is over sand for half of the way. Enoshima is really a rock covered with trees and shrines and shell shops. Paying 3 sen as a toll at the gate or Torii (for the upkeep of the bridge), one ascends the single street of the island with shops full of shells. They sell nothing else - except the giant crab (I saw one that measured 10 feet across with its claws outstretched). The first thing we did was to get tea with Kini Ro Inn, and then went on a round of the island, beginning at the temples and then following the path, arrived at sea level on the other side of the island, climbing down an enormous number of steps to get to the caves. The last few hundred steps were on the side of the cliff and end at the mouth of the caves. Paying a few sen for candles at the entrance we went into a long narrow cave lined with Graken and Buddhas. The end of the cave is railed off with statues of Benten. At the end of another part is a statue of Kwannon. The rock is quite soft and worn smooth. At the mouth of the cave is much rock and a rugged outline of the coastline. The sea is dotted with innumerable fishing boats. Going back to Kakamura by the same route we arrived at Yokohama at 10 o’clock very hot and dusty.

11 June - Yuokohama and Tokio

Went up by early tram to Tokio to see the exhibition and museum. The Exhibition is an immense place with much local industry displayed. The Art-side is just as flourishing as ever, especially the ivory carvings, metalwork, and porcelain. Painting is in transition. The new style is not good except in a few cases, but the old style is very good. The animal and bird life is still unbeaten.

The museum contains an indescribable amount of beautiful things and old things. Christian relics from the persecution and a ‘Times’ sent by a child ‘Corcordu’ from Indian of the account of the Nelson victory of 1805 to the Mikado wishing him victory for Tog’s fleet before Tsushima. Story gave me another of Nambo’s paintings ‘fish’ today.

12 June - Hitachi Maru

Came onboard the Hitachi Maru today. Found Ryley and S Seathese onboard.