considerable distance, and after nine peaceful hours we turned off
from the main stream of the Omono just at the outskirts of Kubota,
and poled up a narrow, green river, fringed by dilapidated backs of
houses, boat-building yards, and rafts of timber on one side, and
dwelling-houses, gardens, and damp greenery on the other. This
stream is crossed by very numerous bridges.

I got a cheerful upstairs room at a most friendly yadoya, and my
three days here have been fully occupied and very pleasant.
"Foreign food"--a good beef-steak, an excellent curry, cucumbers,
and foreign salt and mustard, were at once obtained, and I felt my
"eyes lightened" after partaking of them.

Kubota is a very attractive and purely Japanese town of 36,000
people, the capital of Akita ken. A fine mountain, called
Taiheisan, rises above its fertile valley, and the Omono falls into
the Sea of Japan close to it. It has a number of kurumas, but,
owing to heavy sand and the badness of the roads, they can only go
three miles in any direction. It is a town of activity and brisk
trade, and manufactures a silk fabric in stripes of blue and black,
and yellow and black, much used for making hakama and kimonos, a
species of white silk crepe with a raised woof, which brings a high
price in Tokiyo shops, fusuma, and clogs. Though it is a castle
town, it is free from the usual "deadly-lively" look, and has an
air of prosperity and comfort. Though it has few streets of shops,
it covers a great extent of ground with streets and lanes of
pretty, isolated dwelling-houses, surrounded by trees, gardens, and
well-trimmed hedges, each garden entered by a substantial gateway.
The existence of something like a middle class with home privacy
and home life is suggested by these miles of comfortable "suburban