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You are in a western part of the Inland Sea known as Iyo Nada. The channel leading into the open Pacific is about eighty miles away at your left (west). You can see for yourself that these waters are part of the ocean, for the shore shows how the tides vary. These clumsy sampans or fishing boats go on short cruises among the islands and their owners manage to get a living, helped out usually by the work of the women-folk on a bit of a farm. Barley and millet they raise to some extent, but as everywhere in Japan, rice is the main food supply--those terraces over yonder on the hillside are rice plots, each one made level so that it can be thoroughly soaked with water let down from a terrace above.

That whitewashed wall is somewhat unusual; most Japanese houses, even in the cities, are unpainted, just as you see the other cottages here and the boats. Notice that both tiles and straw thatch are used for these village roofs. Have you missed chimneys? There is not a chimney in the place. The cooking is done over charcoal braziers or little heaps of wood or charcoal on the top of a stone or cemented bench, the smoke passing out as best it can by doors and windows. In cold weather the people hover over a pot of glowing coals. There are no glass windows--only sliding screens of paper for fair weather and heavy wooden shutters for storm nights.

When these fishermen go home at night they will bathe in big tubs of hot water and then sit down to supper of rice and fish and tea. In every house in that village there is a small shrine where the gods are reverenced and honors are paid to he memory of the goodman's ancestors.

(See Chamberlain's "Things Japanese," Hearn's "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan," etc.)

From Notes of Travel, No. 9, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.

[Double line]
Fishing village of Obatake on Inland Sea, Japan.
Village de pecheurs d'Obatake sur la Mer Interieure, Japon.

Transcription Notes:
Unable to transcribe last six lines, beginning with German text.