Seven Legs Across the Seas Part 33

The household stove of j.a.pan is a portable earthen bucket, generally white in color, with a handle. Charcoal is the fuel generally used.

This stove cooks the food of the family and also provides heat in cold weather. The family may be seen squatting about the white earthen bucket with twice as many hands over the fire as there are members of the household. A fan serves to coax the charcoal along.

While the j.a.panese are poor, they seem to be well supplied with clothing. The flimsy character of the homes may account for the thickness of cloth worn, as the weather gets cold in j.a.pan, ice and snow being in evidence. The kimono is worn entirely by women, and generally by men. Occasionally a man will be seen wearing European clothes, but j.a.panese women are always dressed in the native garb.

Some of the small boys wear a helmet after the style worn with a coat of mail, and look really warlike in them.

Both Nagasaki and Kobe are located on hilly ground, which necessitates the building of walls in frequent sections of the cities. These walls are very sound, and a feature of them worth mentioning is that no mortar appears to have been used in their construction.

Most of the modern buildings here were built by firms from other countries, but there are also modern native structures. The business quarters have sidewalks, but away from that section there are none. No street paving was seen either in Kobe or Nagasaki. On the hillsides the soil seemed to be hard, and in the level sections loose gravel was used for paving.

No cabs were seen in Kobe, but street cars and rickshas were plentiful. Street-car fare ranged from one and one-half to four cents.

The ricksha pullers of Kobe were an improvement on some of the starved Chinese pullers of Shanghai. A great many of the pullers of j.a.pan have no shoes on their feet, but wear cloth, generally white, for protection. Walking over gravel roads did not seem to bother the j.a.panese ricksha pullers.

Kobe has a population of nearly half a million, and is second to Yokohama in importance as a seaport, much tea being exported from this port. Behind the city rises a range of high hills, covered with pine trees--a natural park. In front is a splendid bay, from which rises many masts and smoke funnels from vessels at anchor. Some of the streets are of good width and others are very narrow, but all are clean. Attractive homes have been built on the hillsides, but the high gates and fenced and walled enclosures lend to the dwellings the air of a prison.

Cloth grain sacks are never seen in the Orient. Anything of that nature which contains goods is made of gra.s.s.

In the railway stations of j.a.pan are kept on file publications of current dates. This unusual custom seems to be appreciated by the traveling public, as many pa.s.sengers may be seen turning page after page of the periodicals while waiting for a train. The railways are government owned, and the fare, first-cla.s.s, is two cents, second-cla.s.s one cent, and third-cla.s.s one half cent a mile. Some of the first-cla.s.s coaches contain wicker chairs, with observation platform at the rear. Second- and third-cla.s.s coaches are provided with cushioned seats at the side of the car. The width of the tracks is from three to four feet, and the fastest schedule is 35 miles an hour. Meals on trains cost 50 cents. By paying a small additional sum, through steamship pa.s.sengers may travel by rail on their steamship ticket from either Nagasaki or Kobe to Yokohama, or vice versa, with stop-over privileges at any point. Many pa.s.sengers take advantage of this liberal concession. No stations are announced, but the name is printed in big letters on a wide board. Strangers are informed of their destination by a trainman shortly after the train has pulled away from the preceding station. The signs at stations prove a better guide to foreigners, as Europeans are termed in j.a.pan, than announcing them, for words sound so much different when spoken in the native tongue.

We have reached Osaka, the second largest city in j.a.pan. This city has a million inhabitants, and is a very important commercial center. Few horses or oxen were seen here, most of the cartage being done on two-wheeled trucks by men, women, and boys. Chinese truckmen pull their loads with a rope pa.s.sed over the shoulder, but the j.a.panese pulls his load by his breast. A pad is laid across his chest and a rope is put over, the ends of which are generally fastened to the axle of the truck. It is hard to believe that human beings can do the work of horses, mules, and motor trucks in a manufacturing city of a million inhabitants, but they really do so.

Carriages or taxicabs were not seen in the city. Ricksha is the means by which luggage is carried and places reached when traveling other than by street car. Street cars in Osaka are crowded all day. Unless a car is boarded at its starting point, it is generally a case of holding on to a strap. Four and a half cents is charged for a street-car ticket, but there is a coupon to each, which is good for a return journey--two and one-quarter cents a ride. Cars are numerous, single-decked, and they travel fast. Traffic is so heavy that two conductors are required to collect the fares.

The theater district of Broadway, New York City, is termed the "Great White Way," but some of the streets on which bioscope and other theaters are located in Osaka also cast a great flare of light at night. The attractions are printed on cloth of bright color, secured to poles extending from buildings on each side. These signs, all printed in j.a.panese characters, meet in the center of the street, and large arc lights, some of them red instead of white, illuminate the surroundings. This, together with music, noise, and the crowds packing the streets from curb to curb, may appropriately be termed "The Great Colored Way." It is a sidelight of life in another part of the world that has to be seen to be understood. No expense is spared in lighting in front of amus.e.m.e.nt buildings in Osaka. The price of admission is five and ten cents, and the places are jammed during opening hours.

The unit of money in j.a.pan is the yen, which is 50 cents in American coin. The half-yen is a silver piece; some of the lower coins are also silver, others nickel and copper. Sen is used as the American cent, and 100 sen makes a yen. The plural is never used in yen or sen, always 30 sen and 20 yen. A sen is one-half of a cent.

A few wide streets course the city, and modern business buildings show up here and there, but aside from these the buildings are of wood and the streets narrow. No paving, however, covered the streets, neither were sidewalks in evidence. A river flows through the city, which serves as good drainage to this populous center.

The price of food is much higher in j.a.pan than in India and China.

With the exception of Singapore and Canton, hotel expenses did not exceed $2 a day, but $2.50 was the cheapest for accommodation in most j.a.panese cities. Though all wanted $3 a day, a little haggling brought the price down a yen. In our hotel in Osaka the room was heated by a small charcoal stove, of an upright gas-stove shape, instead of the bucket kind. On first sight it seemed a joke, but it took the chill off the room in a short time nevertheless.

A pleasant change in hotel service was met with here. With the exception of Australia and New Zealand, and one place in Durban, South Africa, at every place we stopped male servants were the rule. After leaving South America these were black men. With two exceptions, Delhi and Benares, there was no such personage as a woman housekeeper seen about the hotels--men, men, men at every place. But in Osaka, a rosy-cheeked j.a.panese girl, with the "training saddle" tied to her back, placed the charcoal in the stove, and fiery embers were slid on top from a dustpan shovel; in the dining-room, also, the girls, in their counterless slippers, would shuffle, shuffle, shuffle their feet from the dining-room to the kitchen, and soon shuffle back with the ordered food--the sound of the girls' feet more amusing than annoying.

One wonders how hotels in some countries exist, for often not more than half a dozen guests are living in a big hostelry. The trade seems to come from foreigners only, for seldom is a j.a.panese seen about.

Osaka was my first stop from Kobe, and, inquiring from a young man how I might reach a certain point, he volunteered to show me about the city. His kind offer was accepted. He proved to be a professional man, could speak some English, and seemed to take delight in doing me the slightest kindness. He took me to a splendid park and other places of interest, and insisted on paying his own street car and ricksha fares.

The working hours in j.a.pan are ten a day. Mechanics receive 75 cents and laborers from 30 to 40 cents a day. Rice, fish, and tea seemed to be the princ.i.p.al food, and if the quant.i.ties of food were no larger in proportion than some of the teacups in use, people live cheaply. A man seen eating a bowl of fish and rice with chopsticks was asked what he had paid for it, a vendor having just sold it; he said 30 sen--15 cents. Ten cents would seem a big price for the same portion in America.

Osaka is intersected by ca.n.a.ls, and over a thousand bridges within the city lines cross these waterways, resembling Amsterdam, Holland, in this respect. There are nearly 2,000 places of worship, hundreds of schools, colleges, and academies, five daily newspapers, paper mills, machine shops, and an a.r.s.enal. Tea, silk, and copper figure largely in the exports from that busy center.

If few modern buildings, narrow streets, latticed front and part paper homes, one story in height, and shops located in these buildings, ill.u.s.trate j.a.panese progress, then Kyoto, next visited, is to the fore. The old west capital, as Kyoto is termed, puts one in mind of a pile of wood boxes that have been gathered together to make a bonfire.

This city is one huge tinder box. In size Kyoto is the third city of j.a.pan, with a population of half a million people, and it is the bucket stove alone that saves the residents from becoming homeless through the ravages of fire, for if wood and coal stoves were used there would be frequent conflagrations. The roofs are covered with black tiling, and the houses have no chimneys.

The bazaars or shopping centers of these cities are busy places, and resemble an arcade. These are formed by reed blinds being placed above the street, which, pulled by ropes, roll on wires and stretch across, preventing the sun from shining below--similar to those in Canton.

Meat is scarce about these shopping places, but rice, beans, dried fish, and vegetables are much in evidence. Radishes serve the same purpose in j.a.pan as potatoes in America; they grow as large as a big cuc.u.mber, and when numerous in vegetable stalls an unpleasant odor arises from them.

When a horse or an ox was seen drawing a truck, the driver was always found at the side, or leading it by a rope; it seemed to be the custom not to ride in a loaded vehicle. Cabs are not seen in the city, ricksha pullers doing the hack work. A great many of the public streets are too narrow for a carriage to pa.s.s through. Men do most of the trucking.

Pulling a rope depending from a bell, to warn the spirits that a devotee has come to worship at a shrine, is a national religious custom of j.a.pan. In front of each temple a thick rope dangles from a bell above, and, as the finger-soiled Bible indicates the owner's studious religious tendencies, so does the frayed ropes attest the frequency with which worshippers summon the spirits to bear witness to the supplicant's invocations.

Kyoto is well provided with attractive temples, built during the residence in that city of the governing powers. These buildings, like the homes, are constructed of wood, and as one walks about the churches the floors often squeak. As in India, shoes must be covered with canvas slippers before entering. The j.a.panese, also like Indian worshipers, leave their clogs or sandals outside. Priests are in attendance, and one of these escorts a stranger through the building.

If the temple be a Shinto place of worship the priests are considered descendants of the Sun. In one respect there is no similarity between the priests here and those met in India, as the j.a.panese officials were free of the spirit of beggary. A fee is charged on entering--generally from 10 to 25 cents--and that is all that is expected.

No seats, pianos or organs were seen in the temples, but the floors were covered with mats, on which the worshipers kneel. Off the main church are rooms, where tapestry, with holy figures outlined, hang on the walls, and shrines are sometimes found in the cloisters. The temples are generally located in attractive grounds, often used by children at play. About the buildings are stone or cement posts, on top of which is a four-cornered cap, with a roof or covering larger than the pillar; these represent square lanterns. Under the roof the inside is hollow, with four corners as supports. Lights, put in these, radiate from the four openings. It is one of the sacred emblems of j.a.pan, and hundreds of these lanterns stand in temple enclosures, each one the gift of a well-to-do adherent of the faith. The temples are covered by a roof which seems out of proportion to the building. The eaves are very deep, the supports often richly carved, the designs generally typifying some feature of the religion. The entrance to a Shinto temple is always marked by two stone or wood posts, one on each side, from 12 to 18 feet in height. About two feet below the top a long, straight beam of stone, from a foot to eighteen inches wide, rests in mortises of the upright posts. As the cross stone is solid, one end is placed in the mortise of one pillar and placed across to enter the mortise in the opposite one, the ends extending from two to four feet from the pillars. On top of these posts rest a wide stone cap piece of warped appearance. The whole is called a torii, and appears only at the entrance of a Shinto temple. For walks, the enclosures are covered with gravel, like the streets, or the natural soil serves the purpose of tiling or pavement. They bear no resemblance to temples seen in the other countries visited, neither are they as expensively fitted as some of the mosques and temples in India.

Poor people of other countries do not, as a rule, have two pairs of shoes, but every j.a.panese seemed to possess that coveted number. When we say shoes, we mean something--anything--to keep the feet from the ground. The j.a.panese "shoes" are pieces of wood, a trifle longer than the foot, arched at a point between the joint of the toes and instep, with heavy braid. Another strip of braid, coming from the point of the shapened wood on which the foot rests, is secured to the cross braid, which fits in between the big toe and the next. Under the footboard are fastened two other thin pieces of wood, two to three inches apart, and sometimes three inches high, resembling the bridge of a violin. In wet weather, high-bridged clogs are worn to keep the feet from the ground, and in dry weather low-bridged clogs are used. Sandals are worn by some j.a.panese, but the bridge clog is the shoe of j.a.pan.

High-bridge clogs make more noise than low-bridge ones, and when a dozen persons walk on a sidewalk wearing this footgear one knows the j.a.panese are coming. The clogs cost from 30 to 50 cents a pair.

Bathing in j.a.pan is a custom that must not be overlooked. In the country districts one tub--of wood--is used by a family. Often the bathing takes place in a yard, and the members go through with the custom, one after the other, while steam is on the water. The same water answers the purpose of all.

Small hens' eggs and two-wheeled vehicles go hand in hand in the Orient, as in both respects, particularly in pigeon-sized eggs, the j.a.panese products are the same as first met with in Bombay, India.

Kyoto is flat, with a pine-tree covered hill behind, on which a number of temples stand. Looking over the city from this elevation, it reminds one of a huge lumber yard. By reason of fires having occurred frequently, a few wide streets course the flat site, and not more than half a dozen modern buildings rise above the one-story, flimsy homes.

Without these fire-swept tracts there would be no street cars in some j.a.panese cities. In Osaka and other cities the ravages by fire are being taken advantage of to replace the alleys with wide streets.

Dwarfed pines, fruit trees, bulbs, and other plants are seen at many homes. The j.a.panese are poor, and are taxed heavily by the government; still, the full, rosy cheeks of both women and children would not suggest the hard conditions they are forced to endure to keep body and soul together.

Kyoto, the literary center of j.a.pan, is also noted for its porcelain, lacquer goods, cutlery, hardware, and silk manufactories.

Comfortable chairs in a clean pa.s.senger coach, with an observation compartment at the rear, and but four foreigners as pa.s.sengers, was the agreeable manner in which we started for Yokohama. At nearly every stop the platforms of the coaches were not only swept but washed.

Nothing was lacking to insure comfort, and the train traveled at a speed of 30 miles an hour; but, like the flimsy homes of the people, the coach, which was a first-cla.s.s one, was not the solid car that one is accustomed to in other countries. The railway stations were of good construction, however, being clean and tidy.

Along the route women and girls were seen carrying bundles of coa.r.s.e gra.s.s and reeds from the hills. In China men are seen carrying on their shoulders large numbers of shoes made from such material. In rice fields, and where other grain had been cut, the stubble was level with the ground--nothing allowed to go to waste. A great many of the hills were terraced with stone walls in order to raise food to live on. At one section of the road the train pa.s.sed through a valley, hills rising from each side. The soil was naturally rich and of considerable depth. Women and men were engaged here in shoveling dirt into gra.s.s baskets, which was carried up steep hills and deposited near the top on small patches of land that had been made level by building stone walls to prevent storms from washing the soil back again into the valley. Often a Shinto shrine appeared, and peasants as they pa.s.sed bowed, bent their knees, and moved their lips. All seemed to be warmly clad, had rosy cheeks, and none looked untidy; nor was there any begging at the railway stations. On we went, winding about hills, then through valleys, until, after rounding a sharp turn, a white mountain loomed up in front and to the left--Mount Fujiyama, the sacred mountain of j.a.pan, which rises to a height of 12,365 feet, located 86 miles from Yokohama. By early evening we had reached the cradle of modern j.a.pan.

To Commodore M. C. Perry, of the United States Navy, credit is given for starting a new era in the history of j.a.pan, at Yokohama, in 1854.

Yokohama is to j.a.pan what Shanghai and other cities are to China--a world treaty port. Commodore Perry practically forced j.a.pan to open her gates to other nations of the world, after they had been locked for 2,000 years against all, except the Dutch at Nagasaki. As in the treaty ports of China, the hand of the white man is in evidence at every turn in the good docks, warehouses, customs houses, splendid postoffice building, good bank building, racecourse, public gardens; wide streets, with pavement, some having walks; gas, electricity, street cars, and other signs of progress. A short distance from the concession strip of land the native city is located, with the usual small frame dwellings and narrow, unpaved streets. In 1859 a foreign settlement was established, where only a fishing village had stood previously, but to-day Yokohama is the leading seaport city of j.a.pan and the terminus of ships sailing from European and American ports.

Beyond the business center of the city, on an elevation known as the Bluff, foreigners live. These residents have their churches, libraries, clubs and societies, and are free from any interference.

Horses and oxen, instead of human beings, were found pulling loads of merchandise, and cranes at the docks were used to load and unload the thousands of vessels that come and go. A good railway station adds to the appearance of this foreign city, but there is little native interest to be observed compared to other typical j.a.panese centers.

At Kamakura, an hour's ride from Yokohama, is located the great Daibutsu, the j.a.panese Buddha, 49 feet high, with a circ.u.mference of nearly a hundred feet. The Daibutsu is composed of bronze plates, brazed together, and has eyes, four feet in length, of gold. In the center of the forehead is a silver ball, denoting wisdom. The ear lobes are very long and the hair curly. This great image rests on a stone foundation, and the position of the Buddha is that of sitting down, hands folded, in reverential meditation, the feet being partly under. It is hollow inside, and a shrine has been erected within for worshipers. A ladder leads to the top of the Daibutsu. Kamakura has been sacked by warfare, racked by volcanoes, and ravaged by fires on various occasions, but for 600 years the great image has remained in the same position. It is a striking work of art. From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries Kamakura was the capital of the Shogunate, and at one time had a population of a million people, but to-day it is but a seaside village.

CHAPTER VI

An hour's ride from Yokohama, Tokyo, the capital of j.a.pan, is reached.

The water here is shallow, Yokohama being practically the port for the official city of j.a.pan. Tokyo has more open s.p.a.ce than other native cities, and street cars, rickshas and crowds of people about the railway station gave ample evidence of having reached a large center.

One of the main streets of the capital city is wide, with sidewalks, and good business buildings rise at frequent sections along the thoroughfare. Goods were displayed in the windows, and clerks were on their feet; whereas in other cities j.a.panese merchants, like the Indians, were seen sitting down on an elevation or low counter, with feet partly under and the sandals or clogs on the floor. Away from the business street, however, are the one-story frame dwellings, with latticed-like doors, having white paper in the window squares to admit light. Outside the home are several pairs of clogs, as, again like the East Indian, j.a.panese enter in stockinged feet. The same sliding doors were here, too, and the streets were as narrow and as free of pavement as those of Kyoto and other cities. The charcoal buckets were surrounded by members of the family, each one seeming to take turn in fanning the embers to a stronger heat.

A visitor would find difficulty in getting about Tokyo, as the street signs, where they appear, are printed in j.a.panese, and the same applies to those on street cars. Large, modern street cars were in use, and the travel was so heavy that two conductors, as in Osaka, were kept busy collecting fares. The fare was the same as that in other cities--4 cents with a return coupon, or 2 cents a single ride. Traffic keeps up from morning until late at night. A stranger would do well to have written down in the j.a.panese language on a piece of paper where he wishes to leave the car, as no English is spoken by conductors, and the p.r.o.nunciation of the names of places is not at all as the spelling of the word would suggest in English. As many people held on to the straps as were seated.

j.a.panese believe in the merit of water, as was evidenced in the sprinkling of streets, these being partly muddy all the time, which suggests that high-bridge clogs are generally worn. Very few of the streets were paved with asphalt or blocks, the paving peculiar to j.a.pan--loose gravel--being in evidence on most of them. Many ca.n.a.ls and a few rivers run through the city, and bridges are frequently met with; some of these are of iron.

One misses restaurants, bakeries, and similar stores when traveling through the Far East. Not enough foreigners live in these parts of the world to create a demand for such eating places. Rice is the princ.i.p.al food, and one never sees a loaf of bread or a cake displayed in store windows. Eating is confined to the home or hotel.

Tokyo covers an area of 100 square miles, and good parks are included within its boundaries. The grounds about the Mikado's palace and the government buildings, the latter of European design, are in keeping with a national capital. A high wall surrounds the grounds in which the palace is situated, and a moat, containing clear water, separates the wall from streets on each side. The effect that should accompany an imperial residence is marred, however, as the entrance to the pa.s.sageway leading to the grounds was enclosed with an unshapely frame structure, guarded by soldiers. The streets through that section of the city were paved with loose gravel. Green stretches of gra.s.s and park s.p.a.ces, together with splendid vistas, characterize the scene about the location of the imperial palace. Visitors are not allowed to enter.