[CHAPTER IV.]
NIKKO.
Nikko, Japan, Oct. 20, 1889.
WE left Tokio on the 17th, at 6.46 A.M., for a station called Utsumorama, ninety-three miles. Arrived at noon, and, after an excellent lunch, started in jinrickishas for this place, and a most extraordinary and unique trip it proved to be.
The road was built hundreds of years ago by a Shinto king, and is an admirable example of engineering; well drained, and with an excellent foundation of small stones, which needed only a top-dressing and a steam roller to make it as good as any in Europe. It is lined on both sides with immense pine and cedar trees. Many of these trees are twelve feet in diameter; and often the roots are grown together, so that four or five trees look like one. They are sixty to eighty feet high, and afford an excellent shade.
The distance from the railway station to this place is twenty-five miles, and we made it in four hours with two men harnessed to the jinrickishas tandem. We made only one stop of half an hour for lunch, which we brought with us, and ate at one of the numerous tea-houses.
We arrived at 4 P.M., delighted at the wonderful sights, but much fatigued and very cold. Rooms had been engaged for us in an excellent hotel, excellent in all respects except that there was no way of heating, unless with pans of charcoal. I suffered greatly from the cold, though I had warm clothing, including a heavy overcoat which had done me good service the previous winter at Montreal when the thermometer stood at thirty degrees below zero.
Near the hotel are a dozen, or more, costly and grotesque edifices, much adorned with carved wood statues of horrible-looking beasts and devils, covered with bronze and gold. There are temples of Buddha, and gorgeous mausoleums of kings who died five hundred years ago, situated in a park of big trees; but looking at them, though interesting, was not agreeable, and I was quite satisfied with one visit.