LETTER LVIII

Summary

On my way from Kiyôto I spent three days at Ôsaka with Miss M––, who, having the charge of two Japanese children, and being in Japanese employment, is allowed to live in a little house in the most densely peopled part of the great commercial capital with its 600,000 souls. Aided by her kindness and her small amount of Japanese, I saw many of the Ôsaka sights and most of the huge, busy city, but was impressed by nothing so much as by the numerous waterways and their innumerable bridges, a few of which are stone or iron; the canals quayed with stone; the massive flights of stone stairs down to the water; the houses with overhanging balconies draped with trailers; the broad, quayed roadways along the rivers, with weeping willows on one side and ancient yashikis and rice godowns on the other; the hundreds of junks and small boats moving up or down with every tide; the signs of an enormous commerce everywhere, the floating tea-houses, and house-boats with matted roofs, and the islands with tea-houses and pleasure-grounds. But the sights of Ôsaka, like those of Kiyôto, are on the best beaten tourist track, and you can read more or less about them in every book on Japan.

I made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Warren of the C. M. S., and of Dr. Taylor and others connected with the American mission.