Behind the Screens; An English Woman's Impressions of Japan (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II IN PURSUIT OF PLEASURE '"THERE are a few things in Japan so well worth seeing that most people cheerfully overlook the discomforts of getting to them. Personally, I am willing?and anybody desirous or capable of being thrilled would be willing?to suffer many cramped hours in company with broken eggshells and overturned beer bottles for the sake of the Nikko temples, sacred Miyajima, the ghostly feudal castle of Nagoya, Fujiyama burning like a cone of Moxa in the sunset, or the grey Kamakura Daibutsu smiling inscrutably under a full moon. But the other "sights" of the country I think the great majority of travellers would prefer brought to them on a tray or a tea-cup?except, of course, the Japanese themselves, with their talent for spreading attention and interest out thin over wide and trivial areas. They will patientlyvisit all the insignificant temples, all the prosaic relic collections,?whose only concession to variety is a helmet the more or a sword the less,?all the unoriginal tombs. Or give them a shrine with a nice steep ascent chosen without the least reference to the legs and lungs of tourists, and they will flock to it. If attached to that shrine there is an elderly official with a talent for making them feel utterly subservient, and a sing-song voice in which to chant, with the indifference of habit, many uninteresting details, so much the better. The price of the large wooden ticket of admission should not be more than two sen?about a penny ?as Our Little Brown Allies take their pleasures cheaply, both from necessity and preference. Even Japanese millionaires seldom own motor cars! They would rather sit all day in one spot watching a trickling waterfall in a picturesque valley than be rushed past a dozen waterfalls. They prefer a garden of flowering...