Japan and Her People - Book Excerpt - Chapter I
NOWADAYS a journey to Japan is not at all a formidable matter; there are already six steamship lines crossing the Pacific, their voyages ranging from twelve days to three weeks, and once across travel is little more fatiguing than in Germany or Italy, and far less so from all accounts than in Spain. The chief difficulty for Americans seems to be to find out beforehand what to expect in the way of climate and physical conditions; when to go; what to take and what to leave behind; what there is to see and how much time is needed to see it.
The seasons largely control the choice of routes, the northern lines being most desirable for summer and early fall, the San Francisco ones for winter and March or April. The very best months in Japan, so far as weather goes, are October and November, and even most of December; the next best March to early June. Winter is short and sharp, a good deal like Southern Italy, and equally uncertain as to temperature and sunshine; summer hot and wet (except in the northern island, Yezo), especially in August and September, when there are the severest storms and a heavy, muggy atmosphere.
Was it a Londoner or a Philadelphian who said of his birthplace, “We don’t have climate here; we have weather?” Thanks to the monsoons, Japan gets both; that is to say, from June to October the wind is mostly south and wet, from October to May northwest and dry, with a lively period of unsettlement between changes. This brings the rain in June, just when it is needed for the rice, and blows it away at harvest time. Between the summer rains come bursts of hot sunlight, and everybody airs their houses and closets, and whatever is not already well dried and put away in air-tight chests; for no amount of care will save kid gloves and leather-bound books from spotting if they are left out in the moist heat.
After all, neither cold nor heat is extreme, but the dampness makes both rather trying to foreigners-that is to say, to non-Japanese. Americans miss their steam-heated houses, and shiver through a Tokyo February as if they were in Rome or Naples. But by a second winter, if they will stay on, they will learn to keep the house well open, wear warm clothing and depend on the sunshine, which never fails on really cold days, for the occasional winter rains are as warm as the May showers are chilly. Even August and September need not alarm anyone used to American summers, for foreign residents pass them comfortably enough at the sea or mountain resorts, only it will not do to undertake much exertion or long journeys; the heat is relaxing, and the rains make the roads heavy or even impassable, while trains are liable to be detained by floods or broken embankments.
Just one caution needs to be writ large, namely, drink no unboiled water unless you know where it clune from, and that no rice field has had a chance to drain into it. Remember that the Japanese do not drink cold water, and are consequently indifferent about keeping it pure; even ice is risky; but keeping this rule means health throughout the country at any time of year.
Spring, then, for the blossoms, for weather always uncertain and usually lovely, for that delight of new life felt so strongly in the south, and nowhere more keenly than in Japan; but autumn, October till Christmas, for a prolonged Indian summer, a season of unfailing sunshine and dreamy light, of frosty nights and still days, of rice-harvest and chrysanthemums and brilliant maples. Nine months in the year ladies need cotton or thin silk blouses for the day, and a wrap, not too thin, the moment the sun goes down; even in summer light woolen underclothes are needed on account of the dampness, and after Christmas furs and a steamer rug are necessities for long jinrikisha rides on frosty days.
All ordinary European clothing and personal as well as household goods can be bought in Yokohama or Kobe-not in Tokyo, where you find only such “foreign” things as the Japanese have adopted or adapted for their own use. Prices are about as in America, or even lower for the present, on account of lower duties; so it is better not to burden oneself with extras. Heavy trunks, if brought over at all, had better be stored on first landing, and only such small pieces taken along as can be piled on a jinrikisha and easily handled. In case of leaving from a different port, a shipping agent will take everything in charge and have it put on the proper steamer.
People who wish to be spared all trouble join one of Cook’s or Raymond’s parties, which go usually in the spring and fall, mostly in round-the-world tours, giving about a month to Japan; or engage a guide on arriving, who will act as courier and plan everything if desired. A month is the ordinary tourist allowance, and it is just enough to get around the more important sights, probably not more hastily than most travelers go through Europe. There is this difference though, that while Europeans and Americans know a great deal about each other beforehand, and their civilization is practically one throughout, East and West have no such common inheritance, no such knowledge of each other’s heroes and ideals, and they cannot at a glance understand one another. Therefore, it is well worth an effort to read up a little beforehand, for to those who do not, much of Japan must be quite meaningless, and either “how funny!” or “how absurd!” Books are plenty enough; for instance, Miss Scidmore’s “Jinrikisha Days,” Mitford’s “Tales of Old Japan,” Griffis’ “Mikado’s Empire,” Lafcadio Hearn’s books, and among the latest and best Mrs. Hugh Fraser’s delightful “Letters from Japan” and “The Custom of the Country.” These are a few out of many that serve well to beguile cross-continent journey and voyage, while Chamberlain’s “Murray” (there is no “Baedeker”) and his “Things Japanese” are inseparable necessary companions on the spot, and such works as Rein’s “Industries of Japan” and others of the heavier sort become most interesting for reference.
The (London) Traveller for August, 1900, gives an apt piece of advice-namely: “No tourist visiting Japan should fail to put himself in touch with the Kihin-kai, or Welcome Society, which, for a nominal fue, will very materially assist him in traveling and sight-seeing in the islands of Japan. The Society, which was formed in 1893 on the initiative of certain Japanese noblemen and distinguished foreign residents, will supply the traveler with trustworthy guides, see that he is not cheated by innkeepers and others, put him in the way of obtaining genuine objets d’art, if such be his desire, besides, by virtue of its special privileges, passing him into government buildings, Imperial gardens and many other places of special interest where it would be quite impossible for him to gain admittance as a stranger.”
The Canadian Pacific steamers sail from Vancouver, the Northern Pacific from Tacoma, the Japan Steamship Company (Nippon Yusen Kaisha) from Seattle, connecting with the Great Northern Railroad, the Pacific Mail, Occidental and Oriental, and Toyo Kisen Kaisha (Orient Line) from San Francisco. All make through tickets or returns in connection with the transcontinental railroads at nearly uniform rates. Accommodations compare very fairly with the average Atlantic lines; some arrangements may be less elaborate, but the quick, silent Chinese and Japanese “boys” furnish a better and far more ready service than the high-minded and high-tipped stewards who rule the other sea. All the steamers of the San Francisco lines now call at Honolulu, making a weekly service between them, and their tickets are interchangeable, allowing you to stop over one or more trips if you wish. The steamers usually stay about twenty-four hours in port at the Sandwich Islands, giving time for a run ashore and a glimpse of the tropics. The voyage by Honolulu is never too cold, but is sometimes too hot, and this fact, as well as the shorter voyage-twelve days against eighteen-sends many travelers to the Canadian route, which is always cool, often cold and-well, just as likely to be rough as any other sea voyage. But of these matters the steamship companies and railroad offices will cheerfully supply all particulars, corrected to date, and present beside a whole library of maps and illustrated folders; while, on the other side, hotel runners meet the steamers and attend to all the details of your going ashore. Indeed, if you permit him, the hotel runner will take you in hand and pass you safely and happily from one to another of his fellows throughout the length and breadth of Japan.
