Shops and Shopping—The Barber’s Shop—A Paper Waterproof—Ito’s
Vanity—Preparations for the Journey—Transport and Prices—Money and
Measurements.
I HAVE had to do a little shopping in Hachiishi for my journey. The
shop-fronts, you must understand, are all open, and at the height of the
floor, about two feet from the ground, there is a broad ledge of polished
wood on which you sit down. A woman everlastingly boiling water on a
bronze _hibachi_, or brazier, shifting the embers about deftly with brass
tongs like chopsticks, and with a baby looking calmly over her shoulders,
is the shopwoman; but she remains indifferent till she imagines that you
have a definite purpose of buying, when she comes forward bowing to the
ground, and I politely rise and bow too. Then I or Ito ask the price of
a thing, and she names it, very likely asking 4s. for what ought to sell
at 6d. You say 3s., she laughs and says 3s. 6d.; you say 2s., she laughs
again and says 3s., offering you the _tabako-bon_. Eventually the matter
is compromised by your giving her 1s., at which she appears quite
delighted. With a profusion of bows and “_sayo naras_” on each side, you
go away with the pleasant feeling of having given an industrious woman
twice as much as the thing was worth to her, and less than what it is
worth to you!
There are several barbers’ shops, and the evening seems a very busy time
with them. This operation partakes of the general want of privacy of the
life of the village, and is performed in the raised open front of the
shop. Soap is not used, and the process is a painful one. The victims
let their garments fall to their waists, and each holds in his left hand
a lacquered tray to receive the croppings. The ugly Japanese face at
this time wears a most grotesque expression of stolid resignation as it
is held and pulled about by the operator, who turns it in all directions,
that he may judge of the effect that he is producing. The shaving the
face till it is smooth and shiny, and the cutting, waxing, and tying of
the queue with twine made of paper, are among the evening sights of
Nikkô.
Lacquer and things curiously carved in wood are the great attractions of
the shops, but they interest me far less than the objects of utility in
Japanese daily life, with their ingenuity of contrivance and perfection
of adaptation and workmanship. A seed shop, where seeds are truly
idealised, attracts me daily. Thirty varieties are offered for sale, as
various in form as they are in colour, and arranged most artistically on
stands, while some are put up in packages decorated with what one may
call a facsimile of the root, leaves, and flower, in water-colours. A
lad usually lies on the mat behind executing these very creditable
pictures—for such they are—with a few bold and apparently careless
strokes with his brush. He gladly sold me a peony as a scrap for a
screen for 3 _sen_. My purchases, with this exception, were necessaries
only—a paper waterproof cloak, “a circular,” black outside and yellow
inside, made of square sheets of oiled paper cemented together, and some
large sheets of the same for covering my baggage; and I succeeded in
getting Ito out of his obnoxious black wide-awake into a basin-shaped hat
like mine, for, ugly as I think him, he has a large share of personal
vanity, whitens his teeth, and powders his face carefully before a
mirror, and is in great dread of sunburn. He powders his hands too, and
polishes his nails, and never goes out without gloves.
To-morrow I leave luxury behind and plunge into the interior, hoping to
emerge somehow upon the Sea of Japan. No information can be got here
except about the route to Niigata, which I have decided not to take, so,
after much study of Brunton’s map, I have fixed upon one place, and have
said positively, “I go to Tajima.” If I reach it I can get farther, but
all I can learn is, “It’s a very bad road, it’s all among the mountains.”
Ito, who has a great regard for his own comforts, tries to dissuade me
from going by saying that I shall lose mine, but, as these kind people
have ingeniously repaired my bed by doubling the canvas and lacing it
into holes in the side poles, {79} and as I have lived for the last three
days on rice, eggs, and coarse vermicelli about the thickness and colour
of earth-worms, this prospect does not appal me! In Japan there is a
Land Transport Company, called _Riku-un-kaisha_, with a head-office in
Tôkiyô, and branches in various towns and villages. It arranges for the
transport of travellers and merchandise by pack-horses and coolies at
certain fixed rates, and gives receipts in due form. It hires the horses
from the farmers, and makes a moderate profit on each transaction, but
saves the traveller from difficulties, delays, and extortions. The
prices vary considerably in different districts, and are regulated by the
price of forage, the state of the roads, and the number of hireable
horses. For a _ri_, nearly 2½ miles, they charge from 6 to 10 _sen_ for
a horse and the man who leads it, for a _kuruma_ with one man from 4 to 9
_sen_ for the same distance, and for baggage coolies about the same.
[This Transport Company is admirably organised. I employed it in
journeys of over 1200 miles, and always found it efficient and reliable.]
I intend to make use of it always, much against Ito’s wishes, who
reckoned on many a prospective “squeeze” in dealings with the farmers.
My journey will now be entirely over “unbeaten tracks,” and will lead
through what may be called “Old Japan;” and as it will be natural to use
Japanese words for money and distances, for which there are no English
terms, I give them here. A _yen_ is a note representing a dollar, or
about 3s. 7d. of our money; a _sen_ is something less than a halfpenny; a
_rin_ is a thin round coin of iron or bronze, with a square hole in the
middle, of which 10 make a _sen_, and 1000 a _yen_; and a _tempo_ is a
handsome oval bronze coin with a hole in the centre, of which 5 make 4
_sen_. Distances are measured by _ri_, _chô_, and _ken_. Six feet make
one _ken_, sixty _ken_ one _chô_, and thirty-six _chô_ one _ri_, or
nearly 2½ English miles. When I write of a road I mean a bridle-path
from four to eight feet wide, _kuruma_ roads being specified as such.