y partook
copiously of hot tea and bowls of rice, and bought new straw shoes, or
rather sandals, for less than a farthing a pair.

To-day being the Japanese New Year's Day, all the little shrines in
the houses and along the road were prettily decorated, and had
offerings of rice, _saki_, and fruit deposited upon them. The spirits
of the departed are supposed to come down and partake, not of the
things themselves, but of the subtle invisible essence that rises from
them. The road now became very pretty, winding through the valleys,
climbing up and dipping down the various hills, and passing through
picturesque villages, where all the people, leaving their meals or
their games, came out to look at us, while some of the children
scampered on to secure a good view of the foreigners, and others ran
away frightened and screaming. They were all dressed in dark blue
clothes, turned up with red, with bright embroidered _obis_ and
flowers in their elaborately dressed hair. I have managed to get some
dolls' wigs, which give a good idea of the various styles of
hair-dressing.

In rather more than three hours we reached Arrima, a village far more
beautifully situated than any we had seen, in the very centre of the
mountains, where a dozen valleys converge into one centre. On one side
are mineral springs, on the other a river. Bamboos grow luxuriantly on
all sides, and the inhabitants of the various valleys obtain their
livelihood by manufacturing from them all sorts of articles: boxes for
every conceivable purpose; baskets, fine and coarse, large and small,
useful and ornamental, coloured and plain; brushes, pipes, battledores
and shuttlecocks, sticks, spoons, knives and forks, sauce ladles,
boats, lamps, cradles, &c.

The first glimpse of the village is lovely; that from the bridge that
crosses the river is still more so. We clambered up narrow streets,
with quaint carved houses and overhanging balconies, till we reached a
tea-house, kept by a closely shaven bonze, or priest. He seemed very
pleased to see us, and bowed and shook hands over and over again. He
placed his whole house at our disposal, and a very clean, pretty, and
well-arranged house it was, with a lovely little formal garden,
ornamented with mimic temples and bridges of ice, fashioned by the
hard frost, with but little assistance from the hand of man. Bits of
wood and stone, a few graceful fern-leaves and sprays of bamboo, and a
trickling stream of water produced