without either milk or
sugar--the true way, I think, in which to appreciate its flavour. The
tea-house in Japan occupies the same position as the public-house in
this country, but it has many advantages over the latter. In the towns
and some other parts of Japan, sake--a spirit distilled from rice--is
drunk, and when the Japanese has to any extent been Europeanised or
brought into contact with Europeans, he affects a taste for European
varieties of alcohol. On the whole, however, the people are distinctly
a sober race.

The principal towns are Tokio, the capital, with a population of about
one and half millions, Osaka, having a population nearly as great,
Kyoto, the ancient capital, Nagoya, Kobe, Yokohama, and Nagasaki.
Yokohama may be regarded as the European headquarters; indeed it is
largely a European town, while Nagasaki has more than any other been
under European influences, the Dutch having, as I have already stated,
had a factory there, in the suburb of Decima, continuously ever since
the expulsion of foreigners from the country in the sixteenth century.

Railway communication in Japan is a subject upon which much might be
written. For many years there was only one line in the country--that
between Yokohama and Tokio, about 22 miles in length. At the present
time there are some 4,500 miles of railway open, and extensions are
either in progress or in contemplation. Of the lines now being worked,
about one-third are the property of the Government, the rest having
been constructed by private enterprise. This dual system of ownership
has its disadvantages, and it will doubtless not be permitted to last.
Railway construction has already had a considerable effect on the
opening up of the country, and as the construction is extended the
development of Japan will doubtless proceed in an increasing ratio.

The scenery of Japan has provided a theme for so many pens that I do
not feel inclined to do more than refer to it in passing. Much of the
scenery is sublime but, truth to tell, its beauty, or perhaps it would
be more correct to say the effect thereof on the sightseer, has been
somewhat marred of recent years by the influx of those persons
colloquially known as "globe trotters," the railway extensions to
which I have referred, and the erection of large hotels run on
European lines. Nikko, the incomparable, with its glorious scenery and
its still more glorious temples, the meandering Daynogawa, the
beauteous Lake Ch