Connecticut western news., 1920-09-30
sr nRAI ngInIMro na yAE nis OHnHlsEO
Sights Worth Seeing in the En-
 pire's Temple Cities.
Beautiful Scenery of Nlkko and the Fiowery Great Yeddo in the Cap ital We'll Repay Visitor
 for the Excursion.

"Many feet are now treading hreir way to the shrines in the temple cities of Japan," says the third of a series 1 of bulletins from the National Ge- ographic society on the places which | will be visited by members of con- gress on their trip to the Orient.
 ''Eager Americans will stroll, along the shady streets of Nikko to the tombs of the shoguns and drink in tEe indescribable beautiful scenery, their lips all the while murmuring the Jap anese word kekko (beautifuD, which the Japanese say one never learns to pronounce until he has seen the city of Nikko. In Tokyo, called the Flow cry Great Yeddo, the capital or the empire, they will see the imperial pal ace and tke remains of the former | glory of the shoSuns, family or mlI- i itary governors who were the virtual rulers of Japan for several centuries, and in Kyoto they will probably get a confused. hay idea of one or two of the 800 Buddhist temples and oo Shinto shrines.
 "Perhaps, too, in the temples Of Tokyo a bit of American pocket mon ey will go to q priest for printing pretty prayer on a slip of paper, which the visitor, in true pilgrim fashion, ! will press to his forehead and to his breast and then fasten to the tenn ple wall in order that 1t may be per petuaI petition. But then when there are 3O,OOO deities to whom deyout Jap anese write, few American pleas will scarcely clog the celestial postal serv- Ice.
 ssThere will be many native pilgrims on the way to the shrines. During tbe summer months, when the crops haye been taken care of, the village folk. though they have the temples of their own patron deity and the fox god. feel that they must send out nilrrim or two to the sacred noun tains and holy places of Japan to worship in behalf of those who can- not go, and so they provide fund TOT his expenses. Nor does tEe emissary travel in state. Life for him loses most of its perplexities. He Is eouipped with a cheap white cotton shirt that can be easily washed, tight fitting trousers and a loose white cot ton jacket which he tucks In with a girdIe. He wears an enormous broad stiff straw hat. and on his oack ne
 carries piece of mating Wacn
 serves him as an umbrella by day and
 as a bed at night.
 "In Nikko. though he does not come
 especiaIly to visit the tombs or tfe
 
 within the shadow of the two grea mausolea of the founder of the nnt
 and his grandson, t1ce merciless enc , my of Christianity, which stand on th side of the mountain. Up, up, up, h'
 climbs through courtyard and garden !, mast one splendor after another, unti he reaches the beautiful temple ant .s the actual burial place of line O :, rulers who usurped the sovereignty 0 u the empire and Eeld it for almost thre
 centuries, making the few years GOV
 ering the glory of Napoleon and Crom = we'll insignificant indeed. When th pilgrim reaches the top of the noun :, tain he prays. Then he smokes pip u ar two and leisurely takes up his Joui
 ney to the next shrine.
 z 'In August the pilgrim rolls or hl h mat and the visitor from foreign land ,' climbs out of bed at tte crack of daw l. to hear the lotus flower bloom, for th u buds burst with pleasing character : istic sound
 .sIf Nikko Is the most beautiful cit
 in Japan, Kyoto can be called the mos - interesting. Here the feminine visite .e finds herself bewildered by the mos z, exruisitely ,rrpught of all the exquI =. fte pottery, cloisonne, bronzes. raI - and velvets. After she has bougl = more than she can comfortably g N' home with, she probably will want
 see a bit of the mikado'S palac" wsic
 covers over 25 acres of ground anu s surrounded by a great wall with sl as gates, or journey out to see the lar " est lake in Japan. Lake Biwa. and 1T n nn 1.2OO-year-old pine tree which stan' ,, near it."