Part 19 (1/2)
The motorist had gone over the road on foot, and it had seemed quite possible to negotiate all the curves without backing, but this did not prove true in actual test. The curves were for the most part of the real hairpin variety and came in such never-ending series that count of them was soon lost. On more than half of them it was necessary to back at least once, before getting round.
”Nevertheless,” he resumes, ”we were making good and steady progress until within about a mile and a half from the top of the ridge, when the gasoline began to get too low to reach the engine against the incline and the cant of the car on the turns. From this spot on, the last mile resolved itself into a trial of patience and muscle in manoeuvring the car round each corner to a sufficiently even--or uneven--keel for the gasoline to run to the engine until the critical point of each turn was surmounted. The last two corners were negotiated in the dark, with the writer sitting on the gasoline tank and the chauffeur blowing into it to force the gasoline into the carburetor. At eight in the evening we arrived safely at Mis.h.i.+ma.
”Taking the above experience as a basis, it can be safely a.s.serted that pa.s.sengers on a motor car would not run any risk at all on this road, as there are no unprotected banks over which they could fall, as on the Miyanos.h.i.+ta road. It also makes one of the most beautiful trips out of Yokohama, for as one gradually rises above Atami the magnificent panorama of land and sea displays itself before one's eyes in ever widening circles. In our case we reached the Daiba Pa.s.s too late to enjoy the splendid view of the hills on the one side, and of the ocean with a fringe of foam along the sh.o.r.e down below, though the breakers could be distinctly heard.”
We often motored from Yokohama to Tokyo. The road-bed is comparatively good, being hard and smooth, but it is very narrow, with constant traffic, and there are so many children running across that speed is impossible. Although the distance between the two cities is about twenty miles, the street is like one long village with its rows of houses on either side. It was endlessly interesting, with its procession of carts and wagons with their picturesque loads, and its groups of little, scurrying children in many-coloured kimonos clacking about on their clogs. There were continuous rows of small open shop-fronts with their wares set out in pretty array, and we had hurried glimpses of clean matted interiors and quaint gardens and temple entrances. Every now and then we would cross one of the queer, humped-up little bridges and look down upon the thatch-roofed cabins and high p.o.o.ps of the sampans congested in the river beneath. About an hour and a half is allowed for the run.
Once on this road we stopped at Osame's home--a perfect plaything of a house about two inches big, with an artistic bamboo fence and wicket, a tiny entrance-place, and little six-mat rooms. The wife prostrated herself repeatedly, and offered us tea and cake with many protestations which Osame translated. Their baby was brought in, and looked wisely at some presents which we had for him.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”LOOKED WISELY AT SOME PRESENTS WHICH WE HAD FOR HIM.”]
There are a number of one-day excursions from Tokyo for cars, and still more one- and two-day trips for motorcycles. The roads about Tokyo are good, but with a car one is likely to strike mires or bad bridges or ferryboats that are too small. These difficulties can generally be overcome, however, and they make the trip both varied and amusing.
A short expedition from Tokyo, and one comfortable for the motorist, is to the prehistoric caves--Hyaku Ana--near Konosu. These are some two hundred cave-dwellings that have been uncovered on the side of a cliff.
They have long, low entrances, and vary from tiny holes to caves ten feet square and high enough for a man to stand in. The pieces of jewelry and pottery which have been found there are small help in reconstructing the life of the troglodytes--”earth spiders,” the j.a.panese call them--who may have lived there some thousands of years ago.
Another trip from Tokyo[9] is to the Boshu Peninsula. The tourist will have an excellent opportunity of getting a few glimpses of unfamiliar j.a.pan without going very far afield. The road follows the seash.o.r.e most of the way and offers a great variety of scenery--pine-clad hills, rice fields, pretty gardens, and fis.h.i.+ng villages with the ocean breaking on rocky cliffs. There is little chance for speeding, as the highway is often narrow and pa.s.ses through many tunnels with sharp curves, but the trip was made without any trouble by Mr. S.'s large fifty h. p.
Clement-Bayard.
[9] For this, and several other notes on motoring, I am indebted to the _j.a.pan Magazine_.
Mr. S. and friends started from Tokyo after tiffin, and spent the night at Inage, a small village two miles from Chiba, where there was a quiet inn. Next day, they drove along the coast southwest to Tateyama, which is a popular bathing resort, reaching there in time for tiffin. The views along the way, both of the hills and of Tokyo Bay, were very fine.
They went on to Katsu-ura for the night, pa.s.sing Mera, which is an important fis.h.i.+ng village at the extreme tip of the peninsula, built on a cliff near a lighthouse. It was here that the _Dakota_ was wrecked in 1909. Part of the way the volcano on Vries Island is to be seen.
Near Katsu-ura is the birthplace of the famous Buddhist saint, Nichiren.
He was born in 1222 A. D., and became a priest at the age of fifteen.
His doctrines being considered unsafe, he was sentenced to death, but the executioner's sword was broken by lightning, and orders came from the Regent to release him. Various well-known temples have been erected in his memory.
Next day the return trip was made by way of Ichinomiya, Hamano, and Chiba. The entire excursion can be made in two days, and with an extra day one could also take in Narita, which has a very interesting temple and is well worth visiting.
Mountaineering by motor is also possible in some parts of j.a.pan. A successful trip was made from Tokyo over the Torii Toge not long ago, although the road left much to be desired, being narrow, tortuous, and often washed away in places--between Azuma-Bas.h.i.+ and Narai it was especially bad. This pa.s.s gets its name from the ma.s.sive granite _torii_ at the top, and is over four thousand feet above the sea. The road over the s.h.i.+ojiri Toge, which is thirty-four hundred feet high, is so well engineered that it was found possible to get to the top on middle gear.
The views along the way are said to be of the finest, and the ”Kame-ya”
at s.h.i.+mono-Suwa, a very comfortable hotel with natural hot baths and an obliging landlord.
One motorist found difficulty in garaging his car, and it had to be left under the wide eaves of the roof of the hotel. The ingenious landlord, however, borrowed a huge sheet of thick oil-paper and covered it all up snugly and securely from the weather, as well as from the attentions of a crowd of boys who had gathered round.
”I found the boys troublesome everywhere,” this traveller writes; ”they were not content to look, but must finger everything. On one occasion they turned an oil-tap and lost me half a gallon of precious oil which could not be replaced.... After this I tied up the oil-tap every night and took the wires off the acc.u.mulators, for on another occasion I found that a boy had switched these on.” Such hints may prove useful to the prospective motorist.
The road from Tokyo to Nikko is good, except at one point, where it crosses a river. Next to Miyanos.h.i.+ta, this is the most popular excursion, for the temples are glorious and the hotel is good. We did not hear whether the road from Nikko to Chuzenji was pa.s.sable.
The j.a.panese have a saying that you must call nothing beautiful until you have seen Nikko. L. says nothing is beautiful after you have seen Nikko. It is supreme, the climax. In 1889 he journeyed three hours to Utsunomiya, and then five hours by _kuruma_ to Nikko, through the wonderful avenue of cryptomerias, with the foliage meeting overhead.
This avenue is said to extend for fifty miles. When the temples at Nikko were being raised, some three hundred years ago, many n.o.bles presented portions of them; but some, poorer than the rest, for their share planted these trees as an approach to the temples.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WONDERFUL AVENUE OF CRYPTOMERIAS.]
L. was not disappointed in going there on a later visit, for the great trees still stood solemnly above the gorgeous temples, and peace and religious quiet were to be found there as always. On the other side of the rus.h.i.+ng river, however, there was a change, for hotels and European comforts had been provided.
I am not sure whether one can motor from Tokyo to f.u.kus.h.i.+ma or not, but, in any event, it would be worth trying. We went there on a former visit, staying at a j.a.panese inn, sleeping on mats in comforters. Next day we went on, part of the way by train, part by jinrikisha, to the ”eight hundred and eight islands,” the most fascinating place in the world. We took a boat and went in and out among the islands until we came to Matsus.h.i.+ma, a little fis.h.i.+ng town which is considered the first of the Sankei--”the three finest views in j.a.pan”--on account of its exceptionally beautiful sea view. The islands are covered with queer, stunted pines, among which quaint temples are to be seen. Even now in the stillness of the night I can hear their bells, like a mysterious, musical moan.