[Sidenote:  Amiability.] [Sidenote:  Cleanliness.] [Sidenote:  Temples.]

Same date.—­Simoda is a pretty place, lying on flat ground at the head of a short bay, with rocky volcanic-looking hills, covered with fine trees and intersected by valleys all around.  The people seem the most amiable on earth.  Crime and pauperism seem little known.  All anxious to do kindnesses to strangers, and steadily refusing pay.  There are innumerable officials with their double-swords, but they appear to be on the most easy terms with the people.  To judge from the amount of clothing worn by both sexes, it does not seem likely that there will be any great demand for Manchester cotton goods.  I cannot say what it may be in winter, but in summer they seem to place a very filial reliance on nature.  They are the cleanest people too.  The floors of their houses are covered with mats which are stuffed beneath, and which serve for beds, floors, tables, &c.  It is proper to take off the shoes or sandals on entering the houses or temples.  I looked into one or two bathing-houses, which are most unlike those I saw at Shanghae;—­an inner room which is a kind of steam-bath, and an outer room where the process of drying goes on.  The difference in China is, that it is only the men that clean themselves there, whereas the rights of the fair sex on this point are fully recognised in Japan, and in order that there may be no inequality in the way they are exercised, all bathe together.  I visited some temples.  Though Buddhistic, they had not the hideous figures which are seen in the Chinese temples.  They were generally prettily situated near the foot of the rocky and wood-covered cliffs, with flights of steps running up to shrines among the rocks.  They were surrounded by numerous monuments to the departed, consisting generally of little pilasters, squared on the sides, and bearing inscriptions, surrounded by a coping or ball.  On the pedestal, &c., in front of the pilaster, generally, were one or two branches of what looked like myrtle stuck into pieces of bamboo which serve for flower-pots.  These monuments, crowded together around the temples and overshadowed by the lofty trees, had a very graceful effect.

We have just committed an act of vigour.  In place of going into the harbour of Kanagawa where Count Putiatine is at anchor, I have determined to proceed to a point several miles higher up nearer to Yeddo.  We completely foil by our audacity all the poor Japanese officials.  I have said nothing of the bazaar of Simoda, where there were a great many pretty things, of which I bought some, nor of a visit which the Governor paid to me.  He was a very jolly fellow, liked his luncheon and a joke.  He made the conventional protests against my going on, &c., but when he saw it was of no use, he dropped the subject.  The Japanese are a most curious contrast to the Chinese, so anxious to learn, and so prevenants.  God grant that in opening their country to the West, we may not be bringing upon them misery and ruin.

[Sidenote:  Off Yeddo.] [Sidenote:  Sanctity of custom.]