LETTER LV

Summary

A journey of five days has brought us here to the celebrated Isé shrines. The weather began by being bad, but has improved, and though the impassable state of the roads prevented us from visiting the monastery of Koyeisan and the castle of Takatori, we have passed through lovely scenery, much of which is altogether Arcadian, and Mrs. Gulick is an excellent travelling companion, uniformly cheerful, unselfish, kind, and interested, and we have been fortunate in kuruma-runners, accommodation, and, indeed, in everything but the weather of the three first days. As compared with the rough, unkempt regions of Northern Japan, this is a highly luxurious country, and as fleas and mosquitoes are either dead or in winter quarters, there is really little to complain of. The splendour of the colouring is very great at this season, and as the aforesaid pests are absent, this would really be the best time for travelling in Japan if it were not for the intolerable cold. Time which should be usefully occupied, is completely taken up in hugging a hibachi, by which means the hands and chest are kept tolerably warm, while the rest of the body is shivering, or in tenderly piling one live ember upon another with toy tongs, the size of large scissors. The last resource is the kotatsu, and, casting dignity aside, I often avail myself of it.