were inclined to imitate them.

FOOTNOTES:

[157] See Appendix XLV.




CHAPTER XXI

THE "TANOMOSHI"

(YAMAGATA)

Society is kept in animation by the customary and by sentiment.--MEREDITH


Six feet of snow is common on the line on which we travelled in
Yamagata prefecture, and washouts are not infrequent. A train has been
stopped for a week by snow. It was difficult to think of snow when one
saw groups of pilgrims with their flopping sun-mats on their backs.
The shrines on three local mountain tops are visited by 20,000 people
yearly.

We bought at railway stations different sorts of gelatinous fruit
preparations. Most places in Japan have a speciality in the form of a
food or a curiosity that can be bought by travellers.

In the great Shonai plain, which extends through three counties, there