Small hens' eggs and two-wheeled vehicles go hand in hand in the Orient, as in both respects, particularly in pigeon-sized eggs, the Japanese products are the same as first met with in Bombay, India.
Kyoto is flat, with a pine-tree covered hill behind, on which a number of temples stand. Looking over the city from this elevation, it reminds one of a huge lumber yard. By reason of fires having occurred frequently, a few wide streets course the flat site, and not more than half a dozen modern buildings rise above the one-story, flimsy homes. Without these fire-swept tracts there would be no street cars in some Japanese cities. In Osaka and other cities the ravages by fire are being taken advantage of to replace the alleys with wide streets. Dwarfed pines, fruit trees, bulbs, and other plants are seen at many homes. The Japanese are poor, and are taxed heavily by the government; still, the full, rosy cheeks of both women and children would not suggest the hard conditions they are forced to endure to keep body and soul together.
Kyoto, the literary center of Japan, is also noted for its porcelain, lacquer goods, cutlery, hardware, and silk manufactories.
Comfortable chairs in a clean passenger coach, with an observation compartment at the rear, and but four foreigners as passengers, was the agreeable manner in which we started for Yokohama. At nearly every stop the platforms of the coaches were not only swept but washed. Nothing was lacking to insure comfort, and the train traveled at a speed of 30 miles an hour; but, like the flimsy homes of the people, the coach, which was a first-class one, was not the solid car that one is accustomed to in other countries. The railway stations were of good construction, however, being clean and tidy.
Along the route women and girls were seen carrying bundles of coarse grass and reeds from the hills. In China men are seen carrying on their shoulders large numbers of shoes made from such material. In rice fields, and where other grain had been cut, the stubble was level with the ground—nothing allowed to go to waste. A great many of the hills were terraced with stone walls in order to raise food to live on. At one section of the road the train passed through a valley, hills rising from each side. The soil was naturally rich and of considerable depth. Women and men were engaged here in shoveling dirt into grass baskets, which was carried up steep hills and deposited near the top on small patches of land that had been made level by building stone walls to prevent storms from washing the soil back again into the valley. Often a Shinto shrine appeared, and peasants as they passed bowed, bent their knees, and moved their lips. All seemed to be warmly clad, had rosy cheeks, and none looked untidy; nor was there any begging at the railway stations. On we went, winding about hills, then through valleys, until, after rounding a sharp turn, a white mountain loomed up in front and to the left—Mount Fujiyama, the sacred mountain of Japan, which rises to a height of 12,365 feet, located 86 miles from Yokohama. By early evening we had reached the cradle of modern Japan.
To Commodore M. C. Perry, of the United States Navy, credit is given for starting a new era in the history of Japan, at Yokohama, in 1854. Yokohama is to Japan what Shanghai and other cities are to China—a world treaty port. Commodore Perry practically forced Japan to open her gates to other nations of the world, after they had been locked for 2,000 years against all, except the Dutch at Nagasaki. As in the treaty ports of China, the hand of the white man is in evidence at every turn in the good docks, warehouses, customs houses, splendid postoffice building, good bank building, racecourse, public gardens; wide streets, with pavement, some having walks; gas, electricity, street cars, and other signs of progress. A short distance from the concession strip of land the native city is located, with the usual small frame dwellings and narrow, unpaved streets. In 1859 a foreign settlement was established, where only a fishing village had stood previously, but to-day Yokohama is the leading seaport city of Japan and the terminus of ships sailing from European and American ports.
Beyond the business center of the city, on an elevation known as the Bluff, foreigners live. These residents have their churches, libraries, clubs and societies, and are free from any interference. Horses and oxen, instead of human beings, were found pulling loads of merchandise, and cranes at the docks were used to load and unload the thousands of vessels that come and go. A good railway station adds to the appearance of this foreign city, but there is little native interest to be observed compared to other typical Japanese centers.
At Kamakura, an hour's ride from Yokohama, is located the great Daibutsu, the Japanese Buddha, 49½ feet high, with a circumference of nearly a hundred feet. The Daibutsu is composed of bronze plates, brazed together, and has eyes, four feet in length, of gold. In the center of the forehead is a silver ball, denoting wisdom. The ear lobes are very long and the hair curly. This great image rests on a stone foundation, and the position of the Buddha is that of sitting down, hands folded, in reverential meditation, the feet being partly under. It is hollow inside, and a shrine has been erected within for worshipers. A ladder leads to the top of the Daibutsu. Kamakura has been sacked by warfare, racked by volcanoes, and ravaged by fires on various occasions, but for 600 years the great image has remained in the same position. It is a striking work of art. From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries Kamakura was the capital of the Shogunate, and at one time had a population of a million people, but to-day it is but a seaside village.