Unbeaten Tracks in Japan | Page 6

years, and that the runners fall
victims in large numbers to aggravated forms of heart and lung disease.
Over tolerably level ground a good runner can trot forty miles a day, at
a rate of about four miles an hour. They are registered and taxed at 8s. a
year for one carrying two persons, and 4s. for one which carries one

only, and there is a regular tariff for time and distance.
The kuruma, or jin-ri-ki-sha, {2} consists of a light perambulator body,
an adjustable hood of oiled paper, a velvet or cloth lining and cushion,
a well for parcels under the seat, two high slim wheels, and a pair of
shafts connected by a bar at the ends. The body is usually lacquered
and decorated according to its owner's taste. Some show little except
polished brass, others are altogether inlaid with shells known as
Venus's ear, and others are gaudily painted with contorted dragons, or
groups of peonies, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums, and mythical
personages. They cost from 2 pounds upwards. The shafts rest on the
ground at a steep incline as you get in--it must require much practice to
enable one to mount with ease or dignity--the runner lifts them up, gets
into them, gives the body a good tilt backwards, and goes off at a smart
trot. They are drawn by one, two, or three men, according to the speed
desired by the occupants. When rain comes on, the man puts up the
hood, and ties you and it closely up in a covering of oiled paper, in
which you are invisible. At night, whether running or standing still,
they carry prettily-painted circular paper lanterns 18 inches long. It is
most comical to see stout, florid, solid- looking merchants, missionaries,
male and female, fashionably- dressed ladies, armed with card cases,
Chinese compradores, and Japanese peasant men and women flying
along Main Street, which is like the decent respectable High Street of a
dozen forgotten country towns in England, in happy unconsciousness
of the ludicrousness of their appearance; racing, chasing, crossing each
other, their lean, polite, pleasant runners in their great hats shaped like
inverted bowls, their incomprehensible blue tights, and their short blue
over-shirts with badges or characters in white upon them, tearing along,
their yellow faces streaming with perspiration, laughing, shouting, and
avoiding collisions by a mere shave.
After a visit to the Consulate I entered a kuruma and, with two ladies in
two more, was bowled along at a furious pace by a laughing little
mannikin down Main Street--a narrow, solid, well- paved street with
well-made side walks, kerb-stones, and gutters, with iron lamp-posts,
gas-lamps, and foreign shops all along its length--to this quiet hotel
recommended by Sir Wyville Thomson, which offers a refuge from the

nasal twang of my fellow-voyagers, who have all gone to the
caravanserais on the Bund. The host is a Frenchman, but he relies on a
Chinaman; the servants are Japanese "boys" in Japanese clothes; and
there is a Japanese "groom of the chambers" in faultless English
costume, who perfectly appals me by the elaborate politeness of his
manner.
Almost as soon as I arrived I was obliged to go in search of Mr. Fraser's
office in the settlement; I say SEARCH, for there are no names on the
streets; where there are numbers they have no sequence, and I met no
Europeans on foot to help me in my difficulty. Yokohama does not
improve on further acquaintance. It has a dead-alive look. It has
irregularity without picturesqueness, and the grey sky, grey sea, grey
houses, and grey roofs, look harmoniously dull. No foreign money
except the Mexican dollar passes in Japan, and Mr. Fraser's compradore
soon metamorphosed my English gold into Japanese satsu or paper
money, a bundle of yen nearly at par just now with the dollar, packets
of 50, 20, and 10 sen notes, and some rouleaux of very neat copper
coins. The initiated recognise the different denominations of paper
money at a glance by their differing colours and sizes, but at present
they are a distracting mystery to me. The notes are pieces of stiff paper
with Chinese characters at the corners, near which, with exceptionally
good eyes or a magnifying glass, one can discern an English word
denoting the value. They are very neatly executed, and are ornamented
with the chrysanthemum crest of the Mikado and the interlaced dragons
of the Empire.
I long to get away into real Japan. Mr. Wilkinson, H.B.M.'s acting
consul, called yesterday, and was extremely kind. He thinks that my
plan for travelling in the interior is rather too ambitious, but that it is
perfectly safe for a lady to travel alone, and agrees with everybody else
in thinking that legions of fleas and the miserable horses are the great
drawbacks of Japanese travelling.