Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-06-01
Geographic News
Bulletins By the
National Geographic Society
A Community of Towns

might expect to nnd TOXIC Simply
another Japanese city, overgrown
and o~vercrowded with the old East
and the new West in garish jumbo.
with U own National CapitaIs
wholesome idea of numerous parks
and more than Boston's Inheritance
of crooked Streets" says a bulletin
from Washington. d. c.. headquar-
Of the National Geographic So
concerning the Japanese CAPT.
tai which recently has been expert
more of its perennial earth
quakes.
should you sail up the Bay OF
TO Yokohama. and there seek
to buy a railroad ticket to Toxic.
eighteen miles TO the north. o
could sense the first distinctive
flavor of Japan's capital. Your ticket
would he for S~hinagawa or Shin
bashi, not Toxic, nor yet for fedo,
the older name of the city which
you probably soon would be using in
your letters.
Villages Which Grew Together
your ticket experience would be
equivalent to trying to purchase a
ticket for New York and having the
sgent hand you N for Brooklyn
Harlem. For Toxic is not a city
grown from a town; 1t is a
of villages, a civic pro-
toplasm. a series of communities
over some thirty square
miles with a population of two and
q quarter million people.
Next there is the OF the
you arm yourself with ID
md your way about Toxic. A rail-
way ticket and a guidebook cover
are not negligible things to the
keen perceptions of an American
traveller. 1t is of such casual enti-
ties that impressions are made.
THE guidebook you acquire is
An Official Guide to Eastern Asia
you find upon turning to the
cover is Prepared by the I'M
japanese Government Rail-
ways. Well you do not notice that
until you have meen around
for q few days, and then the
cumulative effect of the Official is
borne upon you. You are not polit-
lcally minded. You went to Toxic
TO see 1t. Perhaps you will go home
and have to acquire some opinions
to answer questions
now you are interested in
tAtt bAoooOiIo IA lhC Aoioy
flowers that bloom in the
pop. pop, as you uncon-
paraphrase 1t. or in seeing
dolls festival. a dance by geisha
girls, or in visiting the Temple of
Timber where lies buried
Yakima. native name
aiken by Lafcadio Hearn when he
a Japanese citizen.
A City of Many Charms
THE fact that many things seem
% be officially ordered does moi an
10Y you as did the 'Verboten' signs
Berlin. 1t 10 just one of the i'm
oressions o get. You r willing
% leave it's significance entirely to
publicists while you give your
'elf over the spell OF a most elu-
i've and fascinating city.
Now a guidebook Is expected to
give some needful facts. and some
does, but you find this one does
more than that. 1t gives you an at
mosphere-unconsciously, it is true,
but definitely, Just the same. Under
heading of January 1t informs
you seriously that people are now
in the very best of humor, going
about paying New Year calls and.
If you are in Toxic in January you
ind that the guidebook spoke truly.
you begin to realize the
tradition. the precedent, the imme-
customs Of the old Japan do
project through all its modernism,
that it is perfectly proper to pre-
dict what human nature will be like
any given period.
Samples of Oficial Frankness
You read further between the
Won nAfA fhat thA IN, NAri
Palace, that the curious 'half-and-
half architectural creation of East
and Western ideas. is jealousy
guarded against the entrance of ordi-
nary persons And further on that
'Koraknen Garden is perhaps the
most celebrated landscape garden in
Toxic accessible (subject to special
to ordinary persons
Then one besins to realize why
Of a Japanese commission
visited Washington some
year W were frankly impressed
by our National Capitals Rock
Creek Park. a vast play place. I'M
and left as nature made
I for automobile roads and bride
Neither in their own coun-
iry nor in Europe. they said. had
hey observed IN rArk exactly like |
hat.
The Paradox OF Toxic
only the very casual visitor will
all to sense the paradox of Toxic.
BY offacial regulation much of the
mechanics of living il rigid; but in
many other respects 1t may we'll
as M of the most diverse
in the world. Each of rs
'malsamated villages has its own
customs and viewpoints. Ar;sto-
cratic Kojimachi Is very unlike |
the city's Latin quarter
Busy, modern Nihombashi, with its
Broadway and 'B%iilingsgate' is a
lar cry from Shtba, village of the |
fower Gate and the giant bell of ma
Ave restaurants and distinctive
tances.
1T almost seems as if only a dull
witted person might write a book
About Toxic; a more sensitive OBJ
'erver would write many volumes
many aspects of a city wheie |
wen the viewing of flowers has
been formalized, where commercial
overlays the Samurai
'eachinss that held profit a disgrace, |
where electric railways disturb the
quiet of the Shinto Shrine
n which the ordeals of boiling
water AND walking on hot Goals still
are practiced.
Easy TO Find Your Way
For the humble traveller by
30 ~