Evening star. [volume], July 04, 1929, Page 13, Image 13

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
GLIMPSING THE FAR EAST |
By GIDEON A. LYON,
Member of American Joumalittf Party Note Touring Orient as Quettt
of Qgrnegie endowment for International Peace.
KYOTO, Japan, June 4.—We are Just
back from a tour pf mountain and
lake and old temples and shops, an#*
I am In my room in the hotel, resting
a bit from a somewhat strenuous day.
After a while, as I look out to the
east, toward home across the seas, the
line of hills closing my view suggests
the thought that I have had an in
teresting variety of scenes presented
to me during the past- few weeks
through Japanese hotel windows. The
hills, clothed* in verdure to the tops,
dotted by shrines and temples, which
cause them to be revered by the peo
ple, differ considerably from most of
ES?' , IT aMgilwiMyrUi.l 4 V .
From My Kyoto Window. —Photo by G. A. L.
these scenes. Perhaps I can reproduce
'them so that they may suggest to those
who rekd this report the quality of
Japanese life and landscape passing in
review before us on our tour.
First came the Hotel Imperial, at
Tokio. We arrived at Yokohama after
dark of the 10th of May, and were
rushed at once to Toklo for a dinner
-at a restaurant. It was close to mid
night when we reached the hotel and
Were shown to our rooms in that
strangely attractive and altogether “un
architectural” structure. I had no idea
of the direction in which my room
faced. In fact, at no time during my
stay in Tokio did I manage to learn
the points of the compass, and I came
to the conclusion that Kipling’s often
quoted lines should really run thus:
"Oh. the East is East and the West
is West, and never the twain shall be
known.”
In the morning I became aware of
sunlight, and on looking out of my
window I sensed that I was in a gen
eral way facing north, from the fact
that the shadows were falling to my
left hand. Across the street was a
large granite building, on the top of
which was a huge electric sign, with
three or four immense Japanese letter
words. Later I was told that it was an
insurance office. It was not strikingly
suggestive of the East, save for those
eccentric characters on the roof.
Got to Know Busiest Street.
To the left hand ran a bread street,
one of the main thoroughfares of the
capital, intersecting a block or so be
low an even greater artery of the city’s
traffic. I’ll not attempt to hunt up
their names in the guide books or
from a map, for I never did and per
haps never could learn them. I did
g't to know the name of the "Ginza,”
Tokio's busiest street of mercantile
trade, but the others slipped through
my ears without making the slightest
impression. Well, this street flanking
the hotel also ran past a park, and on
this first morning it came pleasantly
into view, and I wondered if it was the
park of the imperial palace. I later
found that it was not, the palace park
being a short distance away.
When I looked out on that first
morning it was a bit too early for much
life in the street, but I heard the clatter
of the "geta” or clogs worn *by the
people, and they gave me a distinct
sense of the Orient. Later I was to
find much of interest in looking out of
my Tokio window. A short time after
I awoke that morning a squad of troops
came marching past below me, unarm
ed men. evidently rookies in training.
Bullock carts were lumbering along,
competing with the occasional motor
trucks. It required only a little look
ing out of that window to demonstrate
that manpower is Still the chief trans
portation agenc? in Japan. The bullock
may pull the heaviest loads, but the
man does more, with lighter burdens.
These loads are borne on two-wheeled
carts, so nicely balanced that the
weight means the least to the hauler,
man or beast. Some of these loads
are of huge size, mounting so high as
to hide the "power” completely. It is
strange to see. as one does occasionally,
a cart thus loaded, from the rear, With
only the man’s legs showing, giving the
Impression of a two-legged beast of
burden and not a human being.
Ricklshaw Still Popular.
Os course, the rickishaws came past
my window', many of them, all of a
type, with rubber tires. The rickishaw
has not yielded to the motor car, and,
in fact, in the press of traffic the ricki
shaw demands and gets its right of
way. It was not until I reached Nara,
by the way, that I had my first view
of life from the position of a rickishaw
rider.
But this is not to be an account of
transportation in Japan. That is an
other story. Herein I am trying to
give an impression of my window
glimpses. They became so fascinating
that I spent at the windows most of
the time I passed in my room in day
time. looking out on the big street at
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; an angle or straight down on the lesser
1 street, which flowed almost as thickly
1 with traffic. I was seeing Japan from
: a bird’s-eye point of view.
At Nikko the scene from my window
—it was in fact a long, broad balcony—
was one of the utmost loveliness. Be
low me I cotdd hear the noise of the
river racing to dart under the red
lacquered “sacred bridge.’’ Glancing
below, to glimpse the water If possible,
I saw a garden of rare color and form;
the azaleas burning In varied tones of
flame, the soft greens of the foliage
plants and shrubs tempering the bril
liance of the blossoms, an exquisite
Japanese landscape. In the near dis
tance, across the river, rose the densely
wooded hills sheltering the great shrine
. and the Buddhist temple that are Nik
ko's chief attractions.
To the left the sun was setting, on
' that first evening, in a maze of clouds
through w'hich it glinted from time to
' time, to promise a splendor later at
the moment of the final dip below the
horizon. Great hilltops rounded off
their forms in the film that floated
between us. As the sun went lower
■ and its rays became more level and
> free of the coluds, the valley reaching
' out toward Lake Chuzenji lighted up
' somewhat from the evening murk
and house roofs showed above the
tree tops. Preseatly lights began to
gleam among them, even before the
sun had gone. s
Buddhist Bronze Sounds.
Then came the final dip. the flare
of celestial fireworks, an indescribable
glory of color and form, and suddenly
; darkness. Down below the waters
rushed. As the sun went out of sight
; came the deep note of an immense
: bell, dominating all else, the tone hold
ing for seconds, then pulsing again as
if it would never cease. The great
, bronze at the Buddhist Temple up in
, the forest had been struck for the
evening hour. I felt at last that I
was in the heart of the East.
After Tokio again, for a few days
more of "sightseeing” out of my
, window, came Miyanoshita. high in the
hills, in the "Hakone district.” as it is
i called, really the Fuji region. My
window there offered me a sylvan
scene, restful and delightful. Within
SO feet of me was a waterfall, splash
ing onto a pool about 20 feet from the
brink. On the side were flowers and
shrubs. The arrangement was by na
ture, slightly aided by an expert land
scape artist. The water came from a
mountain stream that at the top of
the hotel compound first formed a
large swimming pool and then, in out
' lets skillfully arranged, poured by va-
I rlous courses in cascades into two small
pools, one of which was that just out
side of my window. It was as though
this lovely vision had been provided
especially for my benefit. Os course,
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othsr rooms gava upon the waterfall
and pool, but I preferred to think of
them as my own.
Then came a day of storm, when
the mountain was swept by a “typhoon"
and the water courses were overflowed.
Sightseeing being out of the question
in that fury of wind end niln, the
morning was spent in writing, the
paying of correspondence debts and
the recording of Japanese experiences
and impressions. It was a good day
for that, at least. My waterfall was
muddy and the pool was thick. The
loveliness was gone, for a little while.
Then suddenly, after lunch, as I sat
writing, facing the window, came a
glint of lighter sky. a subsidence of
the wind that lashed the cascade into
ribbons, and soon the storm, had .passed.
My waterfall once more ran quietly
and serenely and the pool cleared, and
all was well again.
Night Stop at Shiiuoka.
Our next night stop was at Shizuoka,
which has no “western style” hotel. All
12 of us were at a loss how to behave
in a Japanese inn, but we managed
without embarrassment, sleeping com
fortably on the floor beds, making our
ablutions effectively if not luxuriously,
and contriving by various expedients
to get our breakfast In the morning.
Our main anxiety was In regard to
the finding of our way to the office,
where our shoes were parked. Yet that
proved to be easy, with a large and
pointedly attentive staff to guide us.
But as to that window:
There really is no such a thing as
a Japanese "window.” When light and
'air are desired the side of the house
is slid one way or the other, making an
opening. ‘There is a clever way of
taking the whole side of the house out.
I had seen the man who shut me up
in my rooms—l had two of them, an
elegant suite—ln the evening do things
with a series of panels, which he
•seemed to take out of nowhere. In
the morning when I arose—one really
and literally arises from a Japanese bed,
rather than from the other kind, for
the sleeper is almost at the lowest pos
sible level. However that may be, when
I arose In the morning I wanted some
of the sunlight that I could see glint
ing through chinks in the wooden wall.
I wanted, therefore, to do those things
with the wall that I had seen the man
do the nighj before and I began to in
vestigate.
I managed it. I found the ingenious
little dingus that fastened the panels
together, undid it. slid back one panel,
found another little gadget that let an
other panel slide back and then I found
the hiding hole for all the panels, and
with only a little more noise than the
Japanese attendant had made in open
ing up other rooms to the sunlight I
contrived to, get my room fully opened
on one side. That was my ‘’window.”
Across a space of about 30 feet were
the rooms, I knew, of two of my com
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r*dM. Below wore two other*’ quarters.
They were all tightly closed. I felt
superior. I looked down and there was
a lovely little "Japanese garden," the
kind X had read about, a minature
landscape concentrated in a space about
15 feet square, with a stone "lantern,"
a stream, a tiny cascade, some dwarf
pine trees, a pool In which I could see
the gleam of the sides of fish. That
was my Shlauoka window picture.
Nagoya next. Let that be passed
over. The hotel la called “modem," but
one must be of liberal disposition so to
regard It. Nagoya is an ambitious city,
with a present population of nearly a
million and an aspiration to overtake
.Toklo as second in the Empire. Its
leading men speak encouragingly about
a new hotel. Let it be hoped that
their dream comes true and that when
next I go to Nagoya, which Is well
worth visiting, there will be a window
from which I may see some of the love*
llness of Japan.
At Toba, where we rested next, as
house guests of Mr. MUdmoto, the man
who makes the oysters grow pearls, my
"window"—of the same slldlng-panel
sort as that at Shizuoka—gave me a
morning vision of a beautiful bay,
stretching far away to the Pacific, dot
ted with Islands, misted somewhat but
exquisite In Its form and color.
Nara’s window showed me a little
lake, with a bridge in the foreground,
across which while I was looking In
the morning after my arrival, half a
hundred deer from the park crossed,
on their way to their favorite grazing
grounds. In the background rose Mount
Mlkasa, half wooded, half bare of trees.
The morning was rather hazy, soften
ing all outlines. The air was perfectly
quiet, save for the far-off throbbing of
the dying tones of a great temple bell.
Kyoto's window I have already sug
gested. Down below Is an unlovely dis
array of old building material, but In
the midst of it stands a collection of
admirable bronze statuary. Just be
yond, the houses of the town, with
the unseen river dividing the quarters.
A half mile away glows the red form
of a great torll, token of a shrine of
extreme sanctity.
There will be more windows before
we leave Japan, one in Kobe and an
other in Mlyajlma. on Hiroshima Bay,
on the way to Shimonosekl. I have
more hope of the Mlyajlma than of
the Kobe window.
Note—Another of Mr. Lyon’s letters
will appear tomorrow.
' ~B
Discuss Intellectuals.
DRESDEN, Germany, July 4 UP).—
One subject for discussion at the meet
ing of the International Student Self
help and Co-operative Institute, now In
progress. Is "overproduction of lntel
lectuals." ‘ -
LIGHT CRUISER SALEM
ORDERED SOLD BY NAVY
a •wi ■ ■ i i m
Craft, Launched in 1907, Took Fart
in Intervention in Mexico
iiiri»i'«.
By the Associated Press.
The light cruiser Salem Is to be
offered for sale by the Navy Depart
ment. as It is unfit for further naval
service.
The ship, now at Mare Island, Calif.,
was placed out of Commission In I*2l.
The Salem was launched In 1007 and
assigned to the scout cruiser division of
the Atlantic fleet. Hr 1914 the erulaee
participated In the Intervention in Mex
ico and two years later transported
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During the World War she was with the
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from Mexican and Gulf oil fields open.
Heating Plant Contract Awarded.
The Navy Department announced yes
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Docks has awarded a contract, for the
alterations to the heating plant at the
Marine Barracks here for $14,106, to the
Federal Heating Corporation of Wash
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13