The Project Gutenberg eBook ofNotes in JapanThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Notes in JapanAuthor: Alfred ParsonsRelease date: August 14, 2020 [eBook #62924]Most recently updated: October 18, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES IN JAPAN ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Notes in JapanAuthor: Alfred ParsonsRelease date: August 14, 2020 [eBook #62924]Most recently updated: October 18, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)
Title: Notes in Japan
Author: Alfred Parsons
Author: Alfred Parsons
Release date: August 14, 2020 [eBook #62924]Most recently updated: October 18, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES IN JAPAN ***
Contents.
List of Illustrations(In certain versions of this etext [in certain browsers] clicking on the image will bring up a larger version.)
(etext transcriber's note)
NOTES IN JAPAN
[See page 10IN KASUGA PARK, NARA—AN OLD CRYPTOMERIA
[See page 10IN KASUGA PARK, NARA—AN OLD CRYPTOMERIA
[See page 10
IN KASUGA PARK, NARA—AN OLD CRYPTOMERIA
BYALFRED PARSONSWITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHORNEW YORKHARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS1896Copyright, 1895, byHarper & Brothers.All rights reserved.
CHERRY-BLOSSOM BADGE, YOSHINO
CHERRY-BLOSSOM BADGE, YOSHINO
CHERRY-BLOSSOM BADGE, YOSHINO
WE had left Hong-Kong enveloped in its usual spring fog, and for five long, weary days had steamed across the China Sea in regular monsoon weather, gray and wet and miserable, but during the fifth some rocky islands, outlying sentinels of the three thousand which compose the Mikado’s realm, and occasional square-sailed, high-sterned boats, showed that we were near Japan, the Far East, the Land of Flowers and of the Rising Sun, the country which for years it had been my dream to see and paint; and by six o’clock in the evening, on the 9th of March, we were at anchor in Nagasaki Bay. The aspect of that port on a wet day was not inviting, nor were the little grimy girls, who in a chattering, laughing line carried their baskets of coal on board; so, difficult as it was to decline the hospitable invitations of the English residents, I decided to go on with the ship to Kōbe. Early in the morning of the 11th we passed through the Strait of Shimonoseki—the sun shining brightly on the snowy hills and on the crowd of fishing-boats which had been sheltering there from thebad weather—and entered the Inland Sea. After so many days of monotonous gray ocean it was delightful to steam along in sight of land, and wind about among the islets and rocks, so near to many of them that we could see the little villages, the mists of white plum blossoms, the rows of beans and barley growing wherever a level patch could be made on the steep slopes, the people at work in their
IN THE INLAND SEA
IN THE INLAND SEA
IN THE INLAND SEA
fields, and always in the distance the ranges of snow-covered mountains in Kiushiu and Shikoku, the islands which enclose this lovely sea on the south. I longed to land and begin work at once, with a nervous dread in my heart that I should find nothing so good elsewhere, and, indeed, though there is plenty of material to be found everywherein Japan, I saw nothing finer than these islands of the Inland Sea; to cruise about among them in a comfortable boat would be an ideal way to spend a summer, and would probably not be devoid of adventure, for our captain told me many tales of treacherous currents and sudden squalls and sunken reefs.