Cloth grain sacks are never seen in the Orient. Anything of that nature which contains goods is made of grass.
In the railway stations of Japan are kept on file publications of current dates. This unusual custom seems to be appreciated by the traveling public, as many passengers may be seen turning page after page of the periodicals while waiting for a train. The railways are government owned, and the fare, first-class, is two cents, second-class one cent, and third-class one half cent a mile. Some of the first-class coaches contain wicker chairs, with observation platform at the rear. Second- and third-class coaches are provided with cushioned seats at the side of the car. The width of the tracks is from three to four feet, and the fastest schedule is 35 miles an hour. Meals on trains cost 50 cents. By paying a small additional sum, through steamship passengers may travel by rail on their steamship ticket from either Nagasaki or Kobe to Yokohama, or vice versa, with stop-over privileges at any point. Many passengers take advantage of this liberal concession. No stations are announced, but the name is printed in big letters on a wide board. Strangers are informed of their destination by a trainman shortly after the train has pulled away from the preceding station. The signs at stations prove a better guide to foreigners, as Europeans are termed in Japan, than announcing them, for words sound so much different when spoken in the native tongue.
We have reached Osaka, the second largest city in Japan. This city has a million inhabitants, and is a very important commercial center. Few horses or oxen were seen here, most of the cartage being done on two-wheeled trucks by men, women, and boys. Chinese truckmen pull their loads with a rope passed over the shoulder, but the Japanese pulls his load by his breast. A pad is laid across his chest and a rope is put over, the ends of which are generally fastened to the axle of the truck. It is hard to believe that human beings can do the work of horses, mules, and motor trucks in a manufacturing city of a million inhabitants, but they really do so.
Carriages or taxicabs were not seen in the city. Ricksha is the means by which luggage is carried and places reached when traveling other than by street car. Street cars in Osaka are crowded all day. Unless a car is boarded at its starting point, it is generally a case of holding on to a strap. Four and a half cents is charged for a street-car ticket, but there is a coupon to each, which is good for a return journey—two and one-quarter cents a ride. Cars are numerous, single-decked, and they travel fast. Traffic is so heavy that two conductors are required to collect the fares.
The theater district of Broadway, New York City, is termed the "Great White Way," but some of the streets on which bioscope and other theaters are located in Osaka also cast a great flare of light at night. The attractions are printed on cloth of bright color, secured to poles extending from buildings on each side. These signs, all printed in Japanese characters, meet in the center of the street, and large arc lights, some of them red instead of white, illuminate the surroundings. This, together with music, noise, and the crowds packing the streets from curb to curb, may appropriately be termed "The Great Colored Way." It is a sidelight of life in another part of the world that has to be seen to be understood. No expense is spared in lighting in front of amusement buildings in Osaka. The price of admission is five and ten cents, and the places are jammed during opening hours.
The unit of money in Japan is the yen, which is 50 cents in American coin. The half-yen is a silver piece; some of the lower coins are also silver, others nickel and copper. Sen is used as the American cent, and 100 sen makes a yen. The plural is never used in yen or sen, always 30 sen and 20 yen. A sen is one-half of a cent.
A few wide streets course the city, and modern business buildings show up here and there, but aside from these the buildings are of wood and the streets narrow. No paving, however, covered the streets, neither were sidewalks in evidence. A river flows through the city, which serves as good drainage to this populous center.
The price of food is much higher in Japan than in India and China. With the exception of Singapore and Canton, hotel expenses did not exceed $2 a day, but $2.50 was the cheapest for accommodation in most Japanese cities. Though all wanted $3 a day, a little haggling brought the price down a yen. In our hotel in Osaka the room was heated by a small charcoal stove, of an upright gas-stove shape, instead of the bucket kind. On first sight it seemed a joke, but it took the chill off the room in a short time nevertheless.
A pleasant change in hotel service was met with here. With the exception of Australia and New Zealand, and one place in Durban, South Africa, at every place we stopped male servants were the rule. After leaving South America these were black men. With two exceptions, Delhi and Benares, there was no such personage as a woman housekeeper seen about the hotels—men, men, men at every place. But in Osaka, a rosy-cheeked Japanese girl, with the "training saddle" tied to her back, placed the charcoal in the stove, and fiery embers were slid on top from a dustpan shovel; in the dining-room, also, the girls, in their counterless slippers, would shuffle, shuffle, shuffle their feet from the dining-room to the kitchen, and soon shuffle back with the ordered food—the sound of the girls' feet more amusing than annoying. One wonders how hotels in some countries exist, for often not more than half a dozen guests are living in a big hostelry. The trade seems to come from foreigners only, for seldom is a Japanese seen about.
Osaka was my first stop from Kobe, and, inquiring from a young man how I might reach a certain point, he volunteered to show me about the city. His kind offer was accepted. He proved to be a professional man, could speak some English, and seemed to take delight in doing me the slightest kindness. He took me to a splendid park and other places of interest, and insisted on paying his own street car and ricksha fares.