New Britain herald., 1921-06-24

uoWh the river to 1wabuchi. The horses and grooms were now dis
 rnissed and they returned to Shoji.
 IL was getting dark when we land
 ed at fokaichiba, so we did not have
 chance to see what this Japanese
 burg looked like. We found the ho-
 tel to be a two-story affair with a
 narrow balcony on the south side of
 the second story. off of which was
 two foreign furnished rooms. That
 is. each room had a double bed in it,
 with about 30 inches of space between
 the bed and the wall. and one chair.
 At least our room had one chair in it. I cannot vouch for the other room,
 which was occupied by MT. and Mrs. A. MT. and Mrs. C. elected to sleep
 on the floor in one of the Japanese rooms on the first floor and I assure you their choice met with no opposi-
 tion-
 Japanese Food.
 We had the proprietor, who could
 speak a little English, supply us with some food that we could eat, among which was some split eels fried in soya bean sauce. to help out our own
 supply The table was set on the | little balcony on the upper story. and we wedged ourselves around it, except in the one seat on each end and when
 the food was served we feI1 to with vigor born of much exercise and
 fairly long fast. much to the enjoy
 ment of the crowding natives who
 came to see the animals CD feed. The fried cells are worthy of special mention. We each had two pieces | about two inches wide. They were the incest. richest brown color imag
 inable. and they tasted just as good | as they looked. In fact, fried eels are | considered a great delicacy in Japan,
 and in Tokyo there are what might
 be called Fried Eel Restaurants where they make a speciality of serving fried cells. Mrs. B.. who always declared
 she never liked eels in any form, ate her portion of them and said she liked
 that dish very much. When she was told that they were cells, she said:
 Were those eels? Well, I always
 thought I never liked cells. but liked
 those; they were fried so nice and
 brown. and they looked so delicious,
 really liked them.''
 All On Boats.
 We were up early the next morn ing and immediately after breakfast
 we boarded our boat for a trip down
 the Fujikawa river to Ono. We sat on straw bags filed with charcoal,
 where were placed in the bottom of | the boat. To me there appears to be | four reasons why bags of charcoal | were used for seats. CD The boat was not provided with built-in seats; CD the bags of charcoal are light in | weight, they are portable and they | may be placed anywhere in the boat; (3) they could be used as life-pre- servers in case the boat was wrecked | in the rapids, and (4), it takes only | one day to go A0 r1iles or more down | the river. but it takes the men from tour to six days to haul the boat from Iwabuchi up the river to Tam | bara, so they can sell the charcoal in | Iwabuchi and have less weight to
 haul. or they can use it for fuel for campfires on their up trip.
 The river boats are about 40 feet | long; they have a flat bottom made of wide boards; the bow Is high and | sharp. and the stern. which is little lower than the bow, is square; the
 sides are high and they are prevented from collapsing by three or four mar row strips of wood. about equally | spaced between the bow and stern, | secured near the top edge. or gunwale. | they are like our skiffs in shape, but | they are very flexible. and they bend
 and conform very much to the waves | The Japanese boatmen claim that the | boats are built in this manner so they | will glide over a rock in the river if | the boat should strike one and not | be wrecked on it, as would be the case if the boat was built rigid or stiff.
 The river was very rapid and | rough and the boat was controlled by | two men in the bow and two men in ! the stern. Each man in the bow was
 armed with a long green bamboo pole | shod with iron on one end to keep
 it from splitting when it was thrust
 against the rocky bottom of the river by the men in their efforts to direct | the bow of the boat. One of the men
 in the stern of the boat had a similar | pole. and the other man had a long steering oar. but both men used the | oar or poles as the exigency of the
 situation demanded.
 | Tn very rough places in the river we used large sheets of oiled paper to | protect us from the spray, and once | the boatmen put the boat ashore in
 an eddy while they went down along | tho river banq to study out a plan for
 rounding a bend in the river. which
 was very swift and rough.
 Hires Carriage.
 l After securing accommodations in | a Japanese hotel, we hired a Basha,
 which had springs on it. to take the
 ladies up to a temple on Mount Min | obu. while we men folks walked up | there. Before the Basha could start
 the driver of it had to set a shoe on his horse, which was done in this
 manner. He found a stone which he