Often the terminal posts are painted a bright
red; often a little row of family tombs is there too. The watermill is a
common object of the country. But birds are few and animals one sees
never. Indeed in all my three weeks I saw no four-footed animals,
except a dead rat, two pigs and one cat. I am excluding of course beasts
of draught--horses and bullocks--which are everywhere. Not a cow, not a
sheep, not a dog! but that there are cattle is proved by the proverbial
excellence of Kobe steaks, which I tested and can swear to. In all my
three weeks, both in cities and the country, I saw only one crying
child. Of children there were millions, mostly boys, but only one was
unhappy.
SURFACE MATERIALISM
In spite of Kyoto's eight hundred temples I could not get any but a
materialistic concept of its inhabitants; and elsewhere this impression
was emphasised. A stranger cannot, of course, know; he can but record
his feelings, without claiming any authority for them. But I am sure I
was never in a country where I perceived fewer indications of any
spiritual life. Every one is busy; every one seems to be happy or at any
rate not discontented; every one chatters and laughs and is, one feels,
a fatalist. Sufficient unto the day! After all, it is the women of a
nation that chiefly keep burning the sacred flame and pass it on; but in
Japan, I understand, the women are far too busy in pleasing the men to
have time for such duties; Japan is run by men for men.
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