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National Geographic : 1936 Apr
Contents
FRIENDLY JOURNEYS IN JAPAN A military exhibit, housed within its own pretentious building, is all I shall describe of a fascinating Niigata fair. There was a bewildering array of modern armament, mostly of mobile type. A model of a city was defended against night air attack, and a tiny war fleet fought and won upon a painted ocean. In several waxen tableaux, clean-cut sol diers fought overwhelming odds of leering enemies, one usually skulking in the back ground, an upraised knife aimed at the back of a brave, hard-pressed Japanese. On a side wall a huge map of the world carried figures of soldiers, sailors, and ships, drawn to a scale indicative of relative arma ments. At the exit a glass case sheltered a cabinet photo of a uniformed boy. Beside it were the clothes of the subject of the photograph, now dirty, torn, and bloodstained. Before the case a pyre of incense burned, growing higher as simple, kindly country folk, al most without exception, sadly took incense from one bowl and dropped coins into another. EVERYWHERE A FRIENDLY WELCOME Down the coast I went, pausing at Naoetsu, Toyama, Kanazawa, Fukui, and villages between, sometimes walking a few miles between stations, buying meals at fish ermen's houses, staying the night at inns, seeing never a foreigner, and finding kind ness and consideration always. From Maizuru a local train took me to Amanohashidate. This "Heavenly Bridge of Japan," tradition says, enabled the first Son of Heaven to descend to earth. A narrow, pine-clad peninsula extends into a tributary of the Sea of Japan. To an observer on a promontory, bending forward until he can look between his knees, the "bridge" actually does appear to be reach ing skyward. An elderly man who had studied English forty years before had bought fruit and a cigar on the train for me. At first he was interesting, for his teacher had been Lafca dio Hearn. But then he bought two large bottles of sake. I declined them; he drank them both himself, and soon became hilari ously friendly and unbearably affectionate. As tactfully as possible in a foreign tongue, I told him so. When at last he understood, he slunk away like a punished dog, and I felt cruel. Later he looked at me reproachfully, but did not come near. A walk down the peninsula was inter rupted by a sudden downpour, whereupon I followed the example of two Japanese, stowed my clothes in a stone lantern, and swam until the rain was over. An island in the Inland Sea, across Honshu, is Miyajima (Color Plate V and page 468), whose famed red torii, built in the sea, appears at high tide to be floating on the water. Like Nara, Miyajima has its tame deer. Here they roam the streets, making gardening or fruit-stand manage ment a difficult task. They subsist on tid bits supplied by tourists, who are none too gently butted if they venture out without deer food. One of Miyajima's attractions, and a great revenue producer, is a "sacred white horse" in a stable behind a stone altar. Offerings of grain, purchased expensively from a stand near by, will cause the fat, sad-looking animal to turn completely around before he eats it. Horses' tongues have worn a deep hollow in the stone. I followed a creek into the hills, in danger of arrest perhaps, since Miyajima is a heav ily fortified island. But this was virgin country, otherwise. Multi-colored land crabs scurried about, and birds fished in shallows where I saw no living thing. But close inspection revealed fish so nearly transparent that they were almost invisible. Shimonoseki, separated by the narrowest of ship channels from Moji, its sister city on Kyushu, lies at the main island's south western tip. This point of entry, because of heavy protective armaments, may be called a Gibraltar of the Inland Sea. Shimonoseki is overnight from Fusan, south ern seaport of Chosen (Korea). Both are booming on account of heavy commerce with Manchutikuo. AMERICAN PRODUCTS IMITATED Here I stocked with provisions, learning they were more expensive to the north. Canned mussels and octopus I found espe cially cheap. Often I saw cans and pack ages whose shape, color, and familiar American labels made me think of home. But always, though almost identical with an American product in appearance, it turned out to be an imitation. From Kobe, I went to Nagoya's castle on a bright morning, when the gold dolphins on the roof, one of which had even spent some time at the bottom of the sea, glis tened in the sun. 479
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