d busy
villages, past open tea-houses and small country shops, homely,
decorated wooden dwellings, temples, fields, and gardens. Everything is
small, neat, and well kept. Each peasant cultivates his own property
with care and affection, and the harvest from innumerable small plots
constitutes the wealth of Japan. It is impossible to drive fast along
the narrow road, for we are always meeting waggons and two-wheeled
carts, porters, and travellers.

At the "Beach of Dancing Girls" we stay a while under some old
pine-trees. Here people bathe in summer, while the children play among
the trees. But now in November it is cold rather than warm, and after a
pleasant excursion we return to Kobe. On the way we look into a Shinto
temple erected to the memory of a hero who six hundred years ago fell in
a battle in the neighbourhood. In the temple court stands a large
Russian cannon taken at Port Arthur, and also a part of the mast shot
off the man-of-war _Mikasa_.

Buddhism was introduced into Japan in the sixth century A.D., and more
than half the population of the country profess this religion. The old
faith of Japan, however, is Shintoism, to which about one-third of the
people still belong. The sun is worshipped as a principal god and the
powers of nature are adored as divinities. From the solar deity the
imperial house derives its origin, and the Emperor is regarded with
almost religious reverence. Respect is also paid to the memory of
departed heroes, as in China. Of late Christianity has spread far and
wide in Japan, and Christian churches are now numerous.

FUJIYAMA AND TOKIO

It is now November 11. During the night the _Tenyo Maru_ has passed out
from Kobe into the Pacific Ocean, and is now steering north-east at a
good distance from the coast of Hondo. The sky is gloomy, and the desert
of water around us is a monotonous steely-grey expanse in every
direction.

The Mediterranean countries of Europe lie on the same parallel of
latitude as Japan. But Japan lies in the domain of the monsoons or
periodical winds, and when these blow in summer from the ocean, they
bring rain with them, while the winter, when the wind comes from the
opposite direction, is fairly dry. On the whole Japan is colder than the
Mediterranean countries, but the difference in climate between the
northern and southern parts is very great. On the northern island, Yezo,
the winter lasts quite seven months.

At noon Fujiyama[17] is first seen towar