Kobe, or Hiogo, as the old Japanese part of the town is called, is a city of about 40,000 inhabitants, beautifully situated at the entrance to the Inland Sea of Japan, i.e., the sound which separates the main island from the south islands, Shikoku and Kiushiu. Mountain ridges of considerable height here run along the sea-shore. Some of the houses of the European merchants are built on the lower slopes of these hills, with high, beautiful, forest-clad heights as a background, and a splendid view of the harbour in front. The Japanese part of the town consists, as usual, of small houses which, on the side next the street, are occupied mainly with sale or work-shops where the whole family lives all day. The streets have thus a very lively appearance, and offer the foreigner an endless variety of remarkable and instructive pictures from the life of the people. The European part of the town, on the other hand, is built with stately houses, some of which are situated on the street that runs along the shore. Here, among others, are to be found splendid European hotels, European clubs, counting-houses, shops, &c.
Not far from Kobe, and having railway communication with it, is Osaka, the largest manufacturing town of Japan, famed for its theatres and its dancing-girls. Unfortunately I had not time to visit it, for I started for the old capital, Kioto, a few hours after the Vega anchored, and after I had waited on the governor in order to procure the passport that is still required for travelling in the interior. He received me, thanks to a letter of introduction I had with me from one of the ministers at Tokio, in an exceedingly agreeable way. His reception-room was part of a large European stone house, the vestibule of which was tastefully fitted up in European style with a Brussels carpet gay with variegated colours. At our visit we were offered Japanese tea, as is customary everywhere in Japan, both in the palace of the Emperor and the cabin of the poor peasant. The Governor was, as all the higher officials in Japan now are, dressed like a European of distinction, but he could not speak any European language. He showed himself, however, to be much interested in our voyage, and immediately ordered an official in his court, who was well acquainted with English, Mr. YANIMOTO, to accompany me to Kioto.
We travelled thither by a railway constructed wholly in the European style. At Kioto my companion, at my special request, conducted me not to the European hotel there, but to a Japanese inn, remarkable as usual for cleanliness, for a numerous crowd of talkative female attendants, and for the extreme friendliness of the inn people to then guests as soon as they indicated, by taking off then boots at the door, that it
was their intention not to break Japanese customs and usages in any offensive way. A calling card and a letter from Admiral Kawamura, minister of marine, which I sent from the hotel to the Governor of Kioto, procured me an adjutant No. 2, a young, cheerful, and talkative official, Mr. KOBA-YASCHI, whose eyes sparkled with intelligence and merry good humour. One would sooner have taken him for a highly-esteemed student president at some northern university, than for a Japanese official. It was already late in the day, so that before nightfall I had time only to take the bath which, at every Japanese inn not of too inferior a kind, is always at the traveller's call, and arrange the dreding excursion which, along with Lieut. Nordquist, I intended to make next day on Lake Biwa.
The road between Kioto and Biwa we travelled the following morning in jinrikishas. In a short time there will be communication between these two places by a railway constructed exclusively by native workmen and native engineers. It will be, and is intended to be, an actual Japanese railway. For a considerable distance it passes through a tunnel, which, however, as some of the Europeans at Kobe stated, might easily have been avoided "if the Japanese had not considered it desirable that Japan, too, should have a railway tunnel to show, as such are found both in Europe and America." It is probable, in any case, that the bends which would have been required if the tunnel was to be avoided, would have cost more by the additional length than the tunnel, and that therefore the procedure of the Japanese was better considered than their envious European neighbours would allow. There appears to prevail among the European residents in Japan a certain jealousy of the facility with which this country, till recently so far behind in an industrial respect, assimilates the skill in art and industry of the Europeans, and of the rapidity with which the people thereby make themselves independent of the wares of the foreign merchants.
When we reached Lake Biwa we were conducted by Mr. Koba-Yaschi to an inn close by the shore, with a splendid view of the southern part of the lake. We were shown into beautiful Japanese rooms, which had evidently been arranged for the reception of Europeans, and in which accordingly some tables and chairs had been placed. On the tables we found, on our arrival, bowls, with fruit and confections, Japanese tea, and braziers. The walls were formed partly of tastefully gilt paper panels ornamented with mottoes, reminding visitors of the splendid view.