The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1875-06-18
mi 1 Sc O lIane us.
Correspondence Of The AgiS and h.tellige,.ccr.
j 4 = A N.
YOKOHAMA, Dec. 18th, 1874.

MIR. EDITOR: | doubt whether can
get off anything new about Japan, it has
been so much written about. Yet I will
make the attempt.
This is my fourth visit to this heather
land, so you may know am getting pref
ty well posted. l don't think 7 have ever
written you anything about Japanese
country. have made several excursions
back into the interior of about twenty five
miles, but | find there is a great deal of
sameness about it all, unless one goes back
hundred miles more, there believe the
country is very tine-splendid timber. fine
views and all that sort of thing. But to
take trip of that kind it is necessary to
do most OF it on foot, or to be carried Inv
two coolies, doubled up in basket 7
have no weakness for either way of travel ;.
ing.
The trip / am going to give Won m oc-
count OF now was made by friend and
myself in "Ginrickshas," with two coolies
to each. have described before what a
"Ginricksha" is, but I will do it again.
1t is simply a large baby carriage, with
two wheels about 4 feet high, the body
just wide enough to sit in, with YOUR
knees drawn up under your chin, and in
stead Of being pushed from behind, like n
child's carriage, has two little shafts in
front. A Jap gets in the shafts and pulls
it that way. On long journey q second
Jap is required. He takes hold of the
back and pushes. This is the sort ofthino
my friend and myself started out in. few
mornings o,for village called "Tooska, y
about twelve miles in the country. We
were plentifully supplied with sand.
witches and other chow.
We started off on good square trot and
made four miles, this portion of the road
being level, without ever holding IN n
moment. These Ginricksha coolies have
the most astonishing endurance. After
about four miles they stopped and began
to shed their clothes though they did not
amount to much at the start even. Tn a
few moments they had come to the "gentle
bun" with the exception of the smallest
imaginable rag round the loins. assure
you it was quite embarrassing to person
OF as bashful disposition as mine The
japanese ladies along the road did not
seem to mind our fellows in the least. so 7
ceased to be worried.
The road to Tooska leads THROUGH some
beautiful valleys and over some pretty big
nils. Inc valleys are all used to grow
rice, that is to say wherever they can be
hooded. Their rice fields are called "pad-
dy fields" The rice had all been cut and
most OF it carried in from the fields. What
had not been taken was shocked up like
we shock up oats, the straw being about
the length OF good long oats. The thresh-
ing is done in the most primitive way
They either pull the heads through kind
OF coarse comb, or fail it out. At few
places L saw a small wheat fan, an arrange
mcnt something like what we use, but
very small about foot wide, three feet
long, and Of the same height. They evil
IDENTIFY had the thing before we had ours
Where they had no fans man stood up
and dropped the grain and chaff from a
basket to the ground, and woman sat on
the ground in front of him with an exag.
gerated IAN made of paper, and got up q
breeze IN that way. The grain is then put
into wooden mortar and pounded gently
till the husk comes off, leaving the white
rice ready for cooking. The straw is care
fully put up in sheaves, after being thresh
ed out, and it is used for matching houses
making sandals for the people and shoes fol
the ponies. Through the county village.
the roofs of the houses are all made O.
straw, and in many places the sides too.
The farm labor is done entirely by hand
Ponies are used on the roads for packing
purposes only. There are very few cattle
and at long intervals you may see one OF
hitchcd in clumsy cart but that is yer,
seldom. The cultivation everywhere il
the most perfect ever saw-finer thar
any garden cultivation with us. The sol
| 10 nofn 80 b. l..
seen. On the hills and in the valleys
where it can't bic flooded, they raise whea
and vegetables. The wheat is planted il
drills about Is inches apart and looks
now about as ours does in November
Some few Of the hills are not cultivated q
all, being grown up in canes and sort o
stuntcd pine. The people live altogethe
in villages, and they are all in the valleys
There are no houses at all on the hills, Civ
ing rather lonesome appearance to tn
landscape. The road We went out is call
ed the "Tokido," or national road, ant
runs from one side of the Empire to til
other. Then there is the same sort @
thing that runs from end to end of tn
: country. There are no other roads any
. where that carriage can be driven over
The Tokido is about so feet wide, we
graded, macadamized, and is altogether
first rate carriage road. On either side {
the road is row of pines, very old, an
some of them at least 10 feet in diamete
They are fast going to decay, and it seem
strange the government with oil its ne
q civilization don't keep up the avenues b
planting new trees. They add so much
y the beauty and comfort of the road.
From all the elevated places along Il
road we could see "Fusyama,' a mountai