"LOOKED WISELY AT SOME PRESENTS WHICH WE HAD FOR HIM."
There are a number of one-day excursions from Tokyo for cars, and still more one- and two-day trips for motorcycles. The roads about Tokyo are good, but with a car one is likely to strike mires or bad bridges or ferryboats that are too small. These difficulties can generally be overcome, however, and they make the trip both varied and amusing.
A short expedition from Tokyo, and one comfortable for the motorist, is to the prehistoric caves—Hyaku Ana—near Konosu. These are some two hundred cave-dwellings that have been uncovered on the side of a cliff. They have long, low entrances, and vary from tiny holes to caves ten feet square and high enough for a man to stand in. The pieces of jewelry and pottery which have been found there are small help in reconstructing the life of the troglodytes—"earth spiders," the Japanese call them—who may have lived there some thousands of years ago.
Another trip from Tokyo [9] is to the Boshu Peninsula. The tourist will have an excellent opportunity of getting a few glimpses of unfamiliar Japan without going very far afield. The road follows the seashore most of the way and offers a great variety of scenery—pine-clad hills, rice fields, pretty gardens, and fishing villages with the ocean breaking on rocky cliffs. There is little chance for speeding, as the highway is often narrow and passes through many tunnels with sharp curves, but the trip was made without any trouble by Mr. S.'s large fifty h. p. Clement-Bayard.
[ [9] For this, and several other notes on motoring, I am indebted to the Japan Magazine.
Mr. S. and friends started from Tokyo after tiffin, and spent the night at Inage, a small village two miles from Chiba, where there was a quiet inn. Next day, they drove along the coast southwest to Tateyama, which is a popular bathing resort, reaching there in time for tiffin. The views along the way, both of the hills and of Tokyo Bay, were very fine. They went on to Katsu-ura for the night, passing Mera, which is an important fishing village at the extreme tip of the peninsula, built on a cliff near a lighthouse. It was here that the Dakota was wrecked in 1909. Part of the way the volcano on Vries Island is to be seen.
Near Katsu-ura is the birthplace of the famous Buddhist saint, Nichiren. He was born in 1222 a. d., and became a priest at the age of fifteen. His doctrines being considered unsafe, he was sentenced to death, but the executioner's sword was broken by lightning, and orders came from the Regent to release him. Various well-known temples have been erected in his memory.
Next day the return trip was made by way of Ichinomiya, Hamano, and Chiba. The entire excursion can be made in two days, and with an extra day one could also take in Narita, which has a very interesting temple and is well worth visiting.