To-Morrow I Leave Luxury Behind And Plunge Into The Interior,
Hoping To Emerge Somehow Upon The Sea Of Japan.
No information can
be got here except about the route to Niigata, which I have decided
not to take,
So, after much study of Brunton's map, I have fixed
upon one place, and have said positively, "I go to Tajima." If I
reach it I can get farther, but all I can learn is, "It's a very
bad road, it's all among the mountains." Ito, who has a great
regard for his own comforts, tries to dissuade me from going by
saying that I shall lose mine, but, as these kind people have
ingeniously repaired my bed by doubling the canvas and lacing it
into holes in the side poles, {9} and as I have lived for the last
three days on rice, eggs, and coarse vermicelli about the thickness
and colour of earth-worms, this prospect does not appal me! In
Japan there is a Land Transport Company, called Riku-un-kaisha,
with a head-office in Tokiyo, and branches in various towns and
villages. It arranges for the transport of travellers and
merchandise by pack-horses and coolies at certain fixed rates, and
gives receipts in due form. It hires the horses from the farmers,
and makes a moderate profit on each transaction, but saves the
traveller from difficulties, delays, and extortions. The prices
vary considerably in different districts, and are regulated by the
price of forage, the state of the roads, and the number of hireable
horses. For a ri, nearly 2.5 miles, they charge from 6 to 10 sen
for a horse and the man who leads it, for a kuruma with one man
from 4 to 9 sen for the same distance, and for baggage coolies
about the same. [This Transport Company is admirably organised. I
employed it in journeys of over 1200 miles, and always found it
efficient and reliable.] I intend to make use of it always, much
against Ito's wishes, who reckoned on many a prospective "squeeze"
in dealings with the farmers.
My journey will now be entirely over "unbeaten tracks," and will
lead through what may be called "Old Japan;" and as it will be
natural to use Japanese words for money and distances, for which
there are no English terms, I give them here. A yen is a note
representing a dollar, or about 3s. 7d. of our money; a sen is
something less than a halfpenny; a rin is a thin round coin of iron
or bronze, with a square hole in the middle, of which 10 make a
sen, and 1000 a yen; and a tempo is a handsome oval bronze coin
with a hole in the centre, of which 5 make 4 sen. Distances are
measured by ri, cho, and ken. Six feet make one ken, sixty ken one
cho, and thirty-six cho one ri, or nearly 2.5 English miles. When
I write of a road I mean a bridle-path from four to eight feet
wide, kuruma roads being specified as such.
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