[CHAPTER III.]
TOKIO.
Tokio, Japan, Oct. 15, 1889.
AFTER being entertained at Yokohama, on the morning of the 14th instant, with a slight earthquake, we left for this, the capital city of the Empire, on a finely built and equipped, narrow-gauge (3 ft. 6 in.) railroad. Every square yard of the country we traversed was cultivated in the highest degree—Distance eighteen miles, time one hour.
I noticed that the locomotives, cars, and all the equipments about the railroad were of English manufacture from Manchester and Birmingham. I was informed that most of the twelve hundred miles of railroads in Japan were owned and run by the Government. The chief in charge is a native educated in England, who scouted the idea that any other country could produce any thing fit to be used on railroads.
We had previously engaged rooms at one of the two hotels in the city, where foreigners are entertained, and after an excellent dinner, took jinrickishas, of which there are 80,000 in this city, and had a long run through the interminable streets. The city has a population of 1,600,000 and covers a space of thirty-six square miles, the streets being very narrow and the houses mostly of wood, one and two stories high—the stores all small.
After passing through streets for some miles, we came to others, wider and lighted brilliantly by gas and electricity, through which carriages were not allowed to pass. The houses, for miles, were occupied as tea-houses, and were brilliantly illuminated, like the gin palaces of London, or the whiskey saloons of America. Great vans were passing along, on which dancing and theatrical performances were going on. There were also a good many theatres in active operation.
One of the evenings that we were in the city, these streets were occupied by an immense annual flower show, one of the features of which was a big elephant constructed of chrysanthemum flowers of many colors. The effect was very gorgeous.