350 LAKE OF HAKONI. 



furniture, which, to my surprise, was readily accepted, 

 .and I have had no reason to regret my bargain since, 

 for the table meets with much admiration. On the 

 whole, excepting at Yokohama, where Europeans have 

 taught the natives greed, I found the Japanese very 

 fair-dealing people, and nothing pleased them so much 

 as to have their productions appreciated. 



There were several nobles and people of the better 

 <jlass with their families staying at this house, who 

 one after the other asked permission to pay me a visit, 

 probably never before having set eyes upon Europeans, 

 and it was amusing to see them examining and handling 

 every article lying about ; they very politely begged to 

 be shown the contents of my portmanteau, and I 

 noticed many a smile over the different items of my 

 toilet, some of which seemed to puzzle them very 

 much. 



The next day promising to be fine, I started early 

 on a pedestrian expedition to the famous lake of 

 Hakoni, situated at a distance of fully six miles, 

 mostly up-hill, in the direction of Fusi-Yama. At 

 first the path was narrow, winding up the side of a 

 bare mountain until we joined the Tokaido, — the broad 

 military road, paved throughout with large pieces of 

 granite, rather trying to one's feet ; here we passed 



