330 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
wear only a small, generally light-blue, girdle round the waist 
and between the legs. Otherwise they are naked. They are 
thus seen to be in many cases strongly tattooed over the greater 
part of the body. I have not seen the women working naked. 
They perhaps do so at the warmest season of the year. At 
least they do not refrain from undressing completely while 
bathing right in the midst of a crowd of men known and un¬ 
known, a state of things which at first, in consequence of the 
power of prejudice, shocks the European, but to which even the 
former prude gets accustomed sooner than one would suppose. 
We even frequently see European ladies drawn in jinrikisha by 
a youth completely naked with the exception of the blue girdle. 
Many, especially of the younger men, have besides so well- 
formed a body, that the sculptor who could accurately reproduce 
it in marble would at once attain a reputation co-extensive with 
the globe. 
Takasaki is the residence of a governor, with a population 
of about 20,000; but, like most of the towns of Japan, it differs 
little from many of the villages we passed through. We arrived 
late in the evening, and there had our first and last experience 
of an inconvenience of which Europeans often complain in travel¬ 
ling in Japan, and to which they have themselves given occasion 
by the offensive way in which they not unfrequently behave. 
We knocked at the door of one inn after another without being 
received. At one place “ the house was full,” at another “ the 
rooms were under repair,” at a third '' the inn people were out,” 
&c. At last we had to apply to the police. When we had 
shown them our passport, we succeeded with their help in 
getting a night’s lodging with an elderly host, who received us 
with a countenance which clearly indicated that he would rather 
Japan. He and liis comrades in misfortune were received with great 
friendliness by the people, and very well treated by the authorities, if we 
except the exceedingly tedious examinations to which they were subjected 
to extract from them the most minute particulars regarding Europe, and 
particularly Kussia. 
