work is going on busily as late as eleven o'clock. In places the sleepy
proprietors are putting up their shutters, preparatory to going to bed,
but in others the work of artisan or baker or weaver goes on as though
the day had only fairly begun. Most of these shops are lighted by
electricity, but this light is the only modern thing about them. The
weaver sits at the loom precisely as he sat two thousand years ago, and
the baker kneads his dough and bakes his cakes precisely as he did
before the days of the first shogun. This ride gives a panorama of
oriental life which can be equaled in few cities in the world.
Occasionally the jinrikisha dashes up a little bank and across a bridge
that spans a canal and one catches a glimpse of long lines of house
boats, with dim lights, nestling under overhanging balconies. Overall is
that penetrating odor of the Far East, mingled with the smell of bilge
water and the reek of thousands of sweating human beings. These smells
are of the earth earthy and they led one to dream that night of weird
and terrible creatures such as De Quincey paints in his _Confessions of
an English Opium Eater_.

THE MOST FAMOUS CITY OF TEMPLES IN ALL JAPAN

The most magnificent temples in Japan are at Nikko, in the mountains,
five hours' ride by train from Tokio. What makes this trip the more
enjoyable to the American tourist is that the country reminds him of the
Catskills, and that he gets some glimpses of primitive Japanese life.
The Japanese have a proverb: "Do not use the word 'magnificent' until
you have seen Nikko." And anyone who goes through the three splendid
temples that serve as memorials of the early shoguns will agree that the
proverb is true.

The railroad ride to Nikko is tedious, although it furnishes greater
variety than most of the other trips by rail through the Mikado's
empire. But as soon as one is landed at the little station he recognizes
that here is a place unlike any that he has seen. The road runs up a
steep hill to the Kanaya Hotel, which is perched on a high bank
overlooking the Daiyagawa river. Tall cedar trees clothe the banks, and
across the river rise mountains, with the roofs of temples showing
through the foliage at their base. This hotel is gratefully remembered
by all tourists because of the artistic decoration of the rooms in
Japanese style and the beneficent care of the proprietor, which includes
a pretty kimono to wear to the morning bath, with straw sandals for