It was a great relief to handle Japanese money instead of Chinest A cent is a cent, the hundredth part of a dollar, in Japan. There are no 20 cent pieces that "belong blass." No big money and small money to haggle about. Also in the shops you are told the price and take the article or leave it. Half our worries would be gone in China if the country had a decent currency. We had three changes to make on this route and each conductor passed us on to the next with the needful instructions.
On our return journey the conductor simply indicated the tram we were to take, but did not tell the other man where we wanted: to go. I felt that it was up to me to demonstrate to Priscilla that the hours T had put in studying Kelly' and Walsh's handbook of English and Japanese phrases had not been wasted, I. produced the said book and got the appropriate sentence off, pat. Summoning up courage I Addressed the conductor, "Watashi wa—" He smiled broadly, raised' two deprecating hands and indicated by vigorous nods that he knew all about it, And he did, and so did the next conductor. ' From that moment it was plain to us that we could not be lost in Nagasaki. All we need do was to board a tram, at any time or any place, smile at} the conductor and we would be deposited without fail -at the door of the Golden Eagle.
'A Vade Mecum Indispensable The aforesaid handbook is dispensable to anyone tray Japan, It has many—exch but, has also the unavoidable dra back of all such manuals, It fables you ask—almost every necessary question but leaves you hopelessly bogged when it comes to understanding the answer.—You inquire the way to some place that is just round the next corner. is delighted his language so fluently and, with interrogatory smiles and bows, hurls at you enough information to carry you! round the world and back again.
he points in the right and when you have gone as far as his finger indicated stop and polite individual, another lesson in Japanese, gratis, with the indispensable indication and by the time you have been week in Japan you would be brazen enough to address the convocation of Elder Statesmen if} you got the opportunity.
We saw the temple which is like every other Japanese temple, only a little more so and then we rambled through the garden, It] is not a garden but just the top of the hill with paths and seats and Wings for children; all very de-rightful. The view is very good Dut that may be said of the out-Took from any elevated spot in or around Nagasaki. With the evening perambulation through the well lighted streets we felt that we: had well spent our first day in Nagaski very visitor to" Nagasaki rus Visit Mogi. (g hard aa. in. give) Moji, ig a different place's omi across a moderately high hill—say
We told our host of our intention and he volunteered the information that if we hired a motor car to gait would cost us 5 yen for the single and 8 yen for the double trip. But there were public motor cars for which the charge was 50 sen each way. He rightly surmised that we had no ambition to spend 8 yen for a journey that could. be accomplished for one.
Then, with diffidence, he told us that the doctors had said that! his son, five years old, should have sea bathing and if we did not object to his insignificant company would come with us to Mogi. The boy was a well behaved little chap and Priscilla said we would be delighted to have him.
Behold us then ensconced in one of those ubiquitous and sumptuous, vehicles with which Henry Ford besprinkles -the globe. We started off with a fall complement of six passengers, along a street not more than half the width of Honan Road. In places, where there was no telegraph pole usurping a foot of pavement, one pedestrian had room to stand om either side and let the car whizz past without having the buttons brushed off his coat, The chauffeur's name was Jehu and when he missed one of the said telegraph poles by two inches He felt that he had given it! an unnecessarily wide margin. We went up the hill at a fair speed and came down and round several hairpin bends like a stone thrown from a catapult, Walking is Best But it is a crime to motor down' the Mogi side of the hill. One should walk down and, if he does he will walk slowly s0 as not to miss a minute's enjoyment. It is 'a beautiful road shaded with tall trees and some of the largest and most graceful bamboos Ihave ever seen. Lively valleys open off at right angles and there are glimpses of blue water stretching away across to Obama. We reached Mogi and scrambled over the rocks we found a patch of white sand Jwhere we stripped and bathed. The boy, clasped in his father's arms, sat' in the surf, blinking and the breakers broke over then climbed the hill. and!
by a winding path to a little temple overlooking the bay where we were able to buy biscuits and other modest refreshments; the whole costing about a yen. The view from the temple overlooking Mogi bay is one of the loveliest to be seen anywhere, Sunset was approaching and the play of the colours of on sea and hill would have delighted an artist's soul. We came, home in the twilight to a good supper and, as Pepys would say, 50 to bed, The Radium Spring Our next excursion was to] Michano, a place where is a famous radium spring, five miles by train from Nagasaki. Our host informed us that he had bathed in this spring 11 years ago but had travelled much since then and he feared that the tonic properties of the water had now evaporated. We felt sure that even radium would not protect one's, health for more than 11 years and were sympathetic towards his proposal that he should again a company us, for his health's sake. He asked if he might be allowed pay all the expenses of the trip and ]we might refund him on our return. We agreed and he took us in charge. First item 5 sen each tram fare.
Ttem number two third class tickets: on the railway 13 sen each to) Michino. "The third class carriages; on the Japanese railways are spotlessly clean. The seats are! cushioned and they are quite as, comfortable as the same class of learriage in England. The passengers were respectable people, neatly clothed, with only afew of the coolie lass. amongst them, All were courteous, and again we noticed an absence of troublesome curiosity We were no more stared at than if} we had been Japanese fellow travellers.
The railway journey was through beautiful; country. Rice fields _on the level' ground, along which the rails were "laid, with the grain ripening yellow. "The yield seemed abundant, One thought of the words of the anthem, "The valley> stand 60 "with corn that: thes distances varying from 100 yards to a-mile, the hills rose up, covered with verdure and with "streams rushing round their bases: Here and there farmsteads were perched on the hill side where a level spot offered land that might cultivated. Nowhere was there evidence of poverty. The houses were neatly built "and had a prosperous look. Michino is very Pleasantly situated amongst the hills in a fertile valley. There a garden which, like that in the Suwa temple, is on the summit of a hill. The way up led by a nding path through the trees to the summit. We sat and looked lover the country. Smiling valleys bounded by hills, rising to mountains, on four sides. A. pleasant prospect to those accustomed to the flat plain around Shanghai. After a good rest we descended the. hill and refreshed ourselves ina shop adjoining the radium bath building. Thera we Jeonversed in guide book Japanese, in the absence of our host, with the woman in charge. Not until we were thoroughly gravelled did she Jcome to our aid with the Japanese word which we could not find in our vocabulary. She had a fair knowledge of English but was shy] of using it and encouraged us to talk Japanese though, I am sure, she would have found our English easier to understand.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.