CK)

CHAPTER XII

TO THE HILLS

(TOKYO, SAITAMA, TOCHIGI AND FUKUSHIMA)

Nothing which concerns a _countryman_ is a matter of unconcern to
me.--TERENCE

During the month of July I went from one side of Japan to the other,
starting from Tokyo, across the sea from which lies America, and
coming out at Niigata, across the sea from which lies Siberia.

We first made a four hours' railway run through the great Kwanto plain
(6,000 square miles). Travelling is comfortable on such a trip, for
travellers take off their coats and waistcoats, and the train-boy--he
has the word "Boy" on his collar in English--brings fans and bedroom
slippers. The fans, which on one side advertised "Hotels in European
style, directly managed by the Imperial Government Railway[114],"
offered on the other a poem and a drawing. A poem addressed to a snail
played with the idea of its giving its life to climbing Fuji. The poem
was composed by a poet who wrote many delightful _hokku_
(seventeen-syllable poems), showing a humorous sympathy with the
humblest creatures. One poem is:

Come and play with me,
Thou orphan sparrow!

Like Burns, Issa addressed a poem to a louse.

As we climbed from the vicinity of the sea to higher lands someone
recalled the saying about saints living in the mountains and sages by
the sea. Speaking of religion, one man said that he had known of
people giving half their income to religious purposes. He also
mentioned that for some years his mother had gone to hear a sermon in
a Japanese Christian church every Sunday, but she still served her
Buddhist shrine.

It was at an inn at the hot spring near the Mount Nasu volcano--the
odour of the sulphurous hot water was everywhere in the district--that
I first enjoyed the attentions of the blind _amma_ (_masseur_ or
_masseuse_), the call of whose plaintive pipe is heard every evening
in the smallest community. _Amma san_ rubbed and pommelled me for an
hour for 28 sen. The _amma_ does not massage the skin, but works
through the _yukata_ (bath gown) of the patient. I had my massaging as
I knelt with the other guests of the inn at an entertainment arranged
for the benefit of residents. The entertainers, professional and
non-professional--the non-professionals were local farmers--knelt on a
low platform or danced in front of it. They were extraordinarily able.
A dramatic tale by one of the story-tellers was about a yokelish young
wrestler and a daimyo. Another