The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1897-09-07
IN YOKOHAMA TOWN.
Scenes Not Altogether Strange to
the Honluluite,
Yokohama, August IA, 1897.

EDITOR P. c. A.:-Our first glimpse
of Japan was at 1920 this morning, a
long, low-lying stretch of land on THE
dim horizon. 1t was not until l o'clock
in the afternoon that we neared the
point of land around which we enter
the Bay of Yeddo. The tall white
lighthouse stood out in bold relief
against the bluff The verdure of tree
and grass had yellow-green tint The
sides of the bluff were terraced occa-
siOnally, but more often gashed with
! Natures dashes of irregularity The
Japanese are busy building earthwork
Notifications to guard the entrance to
the bay, and on one shoal, to the left
of us, as we came up the bay, they were
| building a stone fort. Soon we came
up to the quarantine vessel, ran up a
signal and slowed down. A steam
launch put off and came up under the
lee of the vessel. One of the two Jap
anese officials on the deck of the launch
with a notebook, asked the name of
the vessel, the port from which we
came, sent up a written notice to the
second Office and our quarantine in
spection was over.
Yokohama was in full view. A long
breakwater, with curving sweep, en-
closes a portion of the bay. Two tow
ers, one red, one white, mark the mid
die entrance, into which our steamer
slowly passed. A fleet of sampans
quickly fiocked around. These yellow
brown, implanted boats are longer and
larger than our Honolulu harbor- boats.
Two men with huge, double-edged
SOULS, with handles tied on, propelled
these antique vessels. One of the men
was often a boy about 10 years old.
The mail bags that had been taken out
of the hold two hours before were now
dropped one by one into the hold of
the mail tug-boat Then the hotel
steam launch came alongside, the bag
gage was lowered, and when all was
ready the passengers babe goodbye to
the Captain and to fellow-voyager and
passed down the gangway. 1t was be-
ginning to rain, and the married folks
disappeared into the little cabin below
We passed alongside of the long iron
pier and were soon at the landing
place, walked up the long, low stone
SINpG anu htlC Oll SllOIt III Llt l-dHu vi
Zipangu, Jeh Pun, the Land of the
Rising Sun. The hotel porter took
charge of our baggage, which had to
pass Custom-House inspection. We
walked a short distance on the wharf
to the Police Station, where jinrikishas
awaited us to take us to the Grand
Hotel.
We were soon assigned our room,
near the corner of the canal, and open
ing out upon the bay. There was not a
breath of air stirring; what air there
was was lifeless, and We did not Won
der that breathing seemed a fruitless
effort, when we learned that the Their
mometer that afternoon had marked
102 deg. We looked out of our window |!
in the moonlight, watching the myriad |
of boats at anchor with their glowworm |
lights. So still was the surface of the |
water that there was not a culver in |
all of the reflected lines of light Two
large japanese war vessels lay outside |
of the breakwater, half-doZen of other
nationalities within and ocean steam
ers by the score. In fact, they are
coming and going all day long, almost
as frequently as ferry-boats.
Dinner in these hotels of the Orient
comes at the close of the days bust
ness and outings. But the dining room
is kept cool with punkas. Dinner is
served at 1880, and after $3.50 smoking
is allowed. The Grand Hotel seems to
be full, judging from the appearance of
the dining room this evening, when. by
the kind permission of the Admiral. |
the band of the United States Flagship
Olympia played during the dinner.
To one accustomed to cosmopolitan
sights of Honolulu, Yokohama does not
seem so strange as it probably would
coming from the States by the Cana
dian-Paeific route 1t is a commercial
city of the ordinary appearance of mod
ern cities. The strange sights. so far as
the architecture is concerned. apart
from the public buildings of brick,
trimmed with granite, are the tiled |
roofs with their queer gable ends: the |
lowness of the buildings, some of them |
of gray stone that has grown dark |
with time, almost as dingy-block as
those in Chicago; the narrowness of
the. streets and their cleanness. swept
by japanese laborers, who gather the |
refuse in a hand-cart, and sprinkled |
from hand-carts, drawn by other jan
anese laborers.
Other strange street scenes are the
barouches drawn by short
legged, long-haired Japanese horses. |