The Plain of Wakamatsu--Light Costume--The Takata Crowd--A Congress
of Schoolmasters--Timidity of a Crowd--Bad Roads--Vicious Horses--
Mountain Scenery--A Picturesque Inn--Swallowing a Fish-bone--
Poverty and Suicide--An Inn-kitchen--England Unknown!--My Breakfast
Disappears.

KURUMATOGE, June 30.

A short ride took us from Ichikawa to a plain about eleven miles
broad by eighteen long. The large town of Wakamatsu stands near
its southern end, and it is sprinkled with towns and villages. The
great lake of Iniwashiro is not far off. The plain is rich and
fertile. In the distance the steep roofs of its villages, with
their groves, look very picturesque. As usual not a fence or gate
is to be seen, or any other hedge than the tall one used as a
screen for the dwellings of the richer farmers.

Bad roads and bad horses detracted from my enjoyment. One hour of
a good horse would have carried me across the plain; as it was,
seven weary hours were expended upon it. The day degenerated, and
closed in still, hot rain; the air was stifling and electric, the
saddle slipped constantly from being too big, the shoes were more
than usually troublesome, the horseflies tormented, and the men and
horses crawled. The rice-fields were undergoing a second process
of puddling, and many of the men engaged in it wore only a hat, and
a fan attached to the girdle.

An avenue of cryptomeria and two handsome and somewhat gilded
Buddhist temples denoted the approach to a place of some