JAPAN. 
H3 
Yokohama is built between the shore and a range of low hills dotted over with trees 
and houses, and overlooked, from a distance of about fifty miles, by the snow-capped cone of 
Fusiyama. The southern end of the town is the quarter occupied by foreigners. It contains 
the residences of the various consuls, a club-house, some fine private buildings, and shops. 
The general aspect is one of respectability and 
dulness. The high ground immediately beyond 
is sprinkled over with pretty villas, and is 
further adorned by a tastefully laid-out public 
garden. The Japanese quarter forms the 
northern and more lively section of the town, 
and extends as far as the terminus of the 
railway which connects Yokohama with Yeddo, 
now called Tokio, distant only about fifteen 
miles. My first sensation on entering the 
native quarter was that of having suddenly 
grown taller by several inches, or of having 
stepped into a second Liliput. The small, 
neat, one-storied dwellings of the Japanese, 
and the narrow streets, are quite in keeping 
with their diminutive inhabitants; and the 
whole scene, quaint as it is novel, produces 
a strange impression upon one accustomed 
to the wide streets and many-storied houses 
of European cities. The Japanese, like the 
French, with whom they share many char¬ 
acteristics, are—more especially the women 
—somewhat short of stature. The young 
girls, in scarlet petticoats, with broad sashes fastened at the back in a large bow, their 
carefully-arranged hair decked with silver and gold pins and artificial flowers, look, as they 
shuffle across the street upon their clumsy clogs, like overgrown dolls just escaped from a 
toy-shop. 
The people strike one at first as being very sociable, polite, intelligent, good-humoured, 
and remarkably fond of out-of-door life. Visiting temples, theatres, tea-houses, public baths, and 
shops, they seem to be ever going to and fro ; yet in the thickest crowd there is no pushing, 
no trace of ill-temper or rudeness, no offensive curiosity in the case of a person whose garb 
marks him as a foreigner; on the contrary, everything is quiet and decorous. Compaied with 
most other nations, Japanese dress and houses are conspicuous for cleanliness. The official 
classes seem to have adopted the European style of dress, in which they show by no means 
to advantage. The majority of the people still adhere to their native costume, although 
some of the more advanced have decided in favour of the wide-awake, the Wester n umbrella, 
JAPANESE GIRLS. 
