PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
The following sketches of life in Japan and the voyage there and back are taken from a diary which I kept during my travels.
Since writing my little book of personal reminiscences, which, thanks to indulgent readers and kind friends, is now republished in a second edition, many and great changes have taken place in the Far East.
Japan has now become a great Power--not only in the East, but also in the West. It is little Japan no longer; or, rather, its greatness is now understood and acknowledged by all the world. Western civilization has taken a firm hold on the Japanese people. They have been rapidly adopting, and, in fact, improving on, Western methods, customs, and manners. The fear of the globe-trotter of to-day is whether he will be in time to see the Japan of his dreams and of romance, before this great Western wave of progress and reform has divested the Land of the Rising Sun of its quaint originality and fascinating charm.
E. H. B.
1906.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
The following sketches of life in Japan and the voyage there and back are taken from a diary which I kept during my travels.
As Japan and its wonderful little people have come so much before the world during the last few years, and especially at this time are one of the chief factors in the crisis in the Far East, I thought that these reminiscences and anecdotes taken from real life might be of interest.
I am indebted to the editors of the Cornhill, Sketch, Sunday, and the Buenos Aires Standard for the reproduction of some of the following sketches.