million yen. In addition to the roots sent into Tokyo, there is a
large export trade in _daikon_ salted in casks.

I came into a district where there was a system of alternate grain and
wood crops. The rotation was barley and wheat for three or four years,
then fuel wood for about fifteen. The tendency was to lengthen the
corn period in the rotation.

The women even as near Tokyo as this wore blue cotton trousers like
the men. One farm-house I entered was a century old but it had not
been more than forty years on its present site. It had been
transported three miles. I was once more impressed by the low standard
of living. If by this time I had not been getting to know something of
the ways of the farmers I should have found it difficult to credit the
fact that a household I visited was worth ten thousand yen.

Sweet potatoes are here much the most important crop. They were
bringing the farmer in Tokyo a little over a yen the 82 lbs. bale. The
consumer was paying double that. Not a few of the farmers were
cultivating as much as 5 _cho_ or even 8 _cho_, for there was little
paddy. Even then, I was told, "it's a very hard life for a third of
the farmers." The reason was that there was no remunerative winter
employment.

Before the Buddhist temple, where there was preaching twice a year,
were rows of little stone figures, many of which had lost their heads.
The heads were in much demand among gamblers who value them as
mascots. Among some mulberry plots belonging to different owners I saw
a little wooden shrine, evidently for the general good. It was there,
it was explained, "not because of belief but of custom." The evening
was drawing in and Fuji showed itself blue and mystical above the dark
greenery of the country. As I gazed a sweet-sounding gong was struck
thrice in the temple. Three times a day there is heard this summons to
other thoughts than those of the common task.

[Illustration: 1. INSIDE THE "SHOJI." p. 35]

[Illustration: 2. AUTOMATIC RICE POLISHER. p. 263]

[Illustration: 3. THE AUTHOR (AND THE KODAK HOLDER) IN THE CRATER OF A
VOLCANO. p. 108]

My companion entered into conversation with a decent middle-aged
pedestrian, neatly but poorly dressed, and found that he was a man who
had formerly pulled his _kuruma_ in Tokyo. The man had found the work
of a _kurumaya_ too much for him and had withdrawn to his village to
open a tiny shop. But he had been taken ill and had been removed to
hospital. When