Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-11-24
TRAVELS IN JAPAN.
SOMETHING OF THE EMPIRE AND
ITS LARGE CITIES.
The Yankees of Asia and How They
Are Adopting American
Civilization.
Correspondence Cleveland o. Leader

Correspondence Cleveland (O) LEADER
TOXIC, October lst.-I write this letter
in Toxic the Capital of the new Japan.
No better place could be chosen for the
study of this, the newest country of Asia
The age of Japan is less than the life of
man. Thirty-6ve years ago the Japan of
to-day did not exist. Twenty years ago it
was land governed by customs, much like
those of Europe during the middle ages.
Feudal Japan has just died, and the Japan
of modern times, with its wonderful adop-
ton of the Christian civilization was born
within its coffin. As a civilized nation
the people are still in their swaddling
clothes, but the almond-eyed babies are
Juggling hard at the breasts of their adopted
mother. and they grow at Geographic
speed. How much they have grown only
those who have lived under the two civili-
cations can tell. Let, me give you few
facts about this country as it is to-day.
Japan is of Asia and still not Asia. Five
thousand miles and fourteen days from San
Francisco. 1t is $4,000 miles by ship from
Liverpool through the Suez Canal 1t is
five days from Yokohama to Hongkong,
and yet some parts of Japan are so near
the Asiatic continent that you can cross in
few hours i'll canoe. Two days sail will
bring you into Corea, and Kamschatka is
within few hours journey of the north
ern borders ofJapan. 1t is land of islands,
and the chain which constitutes it ex-
tends, says one authority, distance of
1000 miles. Most of these islands are
small, but the country all told has enough
territory for a big nation, and several of its
islands are larger than many of our Amer
lean States. The Island of Hondo, which
is the main part of the country, and the
one in which the big cities are located has
25,000,000 population, and the area of
Japan all told is bigger than Italy, and
you could lose Prussia inside of it, All
the territory of Great Britain and Ireland
are not equal to Japan, and the State of
New York is only one-third its size. The
country has to-day more people than we
had in 1870, and its population is about
equal to that OF Great Britain and Ireland
These islands run like a crescent, the
horns of which are pointed toward Asia
There are thirty-eight hundred of them
and the topmost horn is formed by the is
land of Yezo. Yezo is the Alaska of
Japan. 1t contains one-fifth of the whole
territory, and it is peopled by savages who
are hardly more advanced in civilization
Than the Esquimaux. These are the
Amos, who are supposed by some to be the
primitive japanese. There are only seven
teen thousand Of them. They live in huts
wear long hair and beard and have an en-
! tirely different civilization from the rest of
the country. They are small like the
Japense but broader shouldered, and they
are as dirty as the japanese are clean.
The uglier sex of the Amos is the women,
who tatto their upper lips and think that
| frowsy hair is sign of beauty. With the
modern Japan Yezo and the Amos has
little to do. They are governed by the
Mikado and he appoints ruler for their
, island. They furnish much of the lumber
for Japan and their rocky island is said to
be full Of minerals. As political factor,
however, they are nothing.
The big cities of Japan are in the island
of Hondo, which lies south of the Yezo
which is several hundreds of miles long
and at places 200 miles wide Here are
the chief agricultural regions, the manu-
| featuring districts and in short Japan.
Toxic itself has 100000 inhabitants, and
lies in the center of the empire. Its dis
tances are more magnificent than those of
Washington, and its size is about that of
Philadelphia. Three hundred miles west
of Toxic is Osaka, which has about as
many inhabitants as Chicago, and very
few miles off from this is Kioto. which was
! formerly the capital of the empire and
! which boasts as many people as Washing
ton, Kansas City or Cleveland Osaka is
is now the New York of Japan, and Kioto,
with its temples, may be called the Mecca
of the Empire. Nagoya and Kanazawa
are cities each having over 100000 popu-
lation, and there are a dozen other cities
in Japan each of which contains from 40
900 to $4,000 people. There are countless
villages and many small cities, and the
land of Japan has been semi-civilized
country for centuries.
Japan is land Of mountains and valleys,
and it has as many different climates as the
United States. You may find your Mime
sofa in Yezo, your Florida about Nagasaki,
and over all you will find the green of old
Ireland. Surrounded by the sea, TIE air is
ever full of moisture, and even in winter
the land is green. 1t is land of flowers.
| saw camellia hedges like trees near
Yokohama. There are acres and quarter
sections of water about Toki covered with
! lotus flowers as big around as a five-cent
loaf of American bread and surrounded by
green discs each of which is as big as a
palm leaf fan. The wisteria here grows
wild and Japan is the land of the chrys-
anthemum. This flower forms the crest of
the Mikado and the poetic nature of the
Japanese people is shown in their love for
flowers. They have their flower shows
three times month, and when the trees
blossom the whole nation goes wild. Flower
peddlers are everywhere and Toxic is
city of gardens.
The biggest mountain in Japan is Fugi-
wanna, an extinct volcano whose summit is
over $4,000 feet above the sea. Its snowy
peak looks down upon me as l write this
letter, and the story Of thevolcano at Band
isan is still new. There are now over
twenty active and hundreds of dormant
volcanoes in Japan, and the land is one of
earthquakes. Some persons state that Tikie
has an earthquake every day of the year,
but ii so, they are imperceptible, for / have
been here month and have noticed but
one, which was only slight shiver of the
earth which passed away in minute
The japanese of olden times believed that
the eapthquakes came from gigantic fish,
which, living in the sea, bumped its nose
or struck its tail against the coast in it's
anger. This shook the earth and caused it
TO crack and tremble. One hundred and
eighty-iye years ago an earthquake. de-
stroyed the whole of this city, and it is said
that in it 100000 people lost their lives.
Toxic had an earthquake as far back as
1855 which cost the capital the lives Of
104, 900, aud within five years of scientific
observation between 1872 and 1877 eighty
six earthquakes were noticed at Toxic.
Still the japanese country in this part of
the island looks anything but volcanic. 1t
is made of beautiful patches of hill and
hollow cut into fields like crazy quill,
and with the various crops covering areas
each of which is not much larger than the
| floor of good-sized room. Agriculturally,
the people seem to work their ground as
though it was all garden, and l doubt
! whether there is more thorough cultiva-
ton anywhere. Sill am told that only
two-tenths of the area of the Empire is
cultivated, and that much of the remain
der contains valuable land. Colonization
/ is now going on in Yezo, and the expert