Nine Years in Nipon

This volume is from 1888. From the book''s Preface: So many works have of late been written on Japan that perhaps the best apology for publishing a new one is that the public seem to wish for more. My aim has been to give in language as free as possible from pedantic jargon such an account of Nipon and its people as may instruct without unduly boring my readers. A great deal more might have been written than I have here attempted but fortunately strict limits were imposed upon me and I sincerely hope that useful and interesting things only have found admission. I have been obliged to omit most reluctantly a large section in which I intended to give some account of the religious and moral systems which prevail in Japan but should this work succeed in finding a moderate measure of public approbation I hope soon to expand my notes on these subjects into a separate volume. Summary from the 25 chapters: The Land Its Contour--The Four Great Islands-- Inland Sea- Rivers and Canals-- Coast-- Lighthouses--Flora and Fauna Tropical Fruits and Icy Decks-- An Economical Lighthouse Japanese Horror of Paint--A Mushroom Settlement Granny and the Engine-- A Solid Road-- Lady Smokers-- Paddy Fields and Egrets-- Fuji the Peerless Mountain-- A Clerical Cyclist Kite Flying--A Hint for Arctic Explorers-- Fishy Conduct of an English Professor-- The Queen''s English New Friends-- Plague of Frogs and Students-- New Mode of Running a Restaurant-- The Great Workman and his Little Ways A Rembrandtesque Scene-- Daybreak on the Plains-- Wayside Tea-houses--Buddha in Bronze-- Dining in Public-- A Doctor of the Old School--A Charming Bedroom-- Landscape Gardening in Miniature-- Duck''s Eggs and Duty-- Doctors Sometimes Differ Bad Roads and Better Language-- Spiders and Beetles-- A Japanese Scarecrow-- Buddhists Teaching and Modern Science A Village Festival-- Butterflies and Cicadas-- A Noisy Inn--Silk--Dining on Hot Water--A Mountain Pass-- Tea and Tattle Pretty Tree Frogs-- Ancient Trees-- Peep into a Village School Inspiring Walk--Lava Froth and its Use--Mountain Lake-- Volcanic Prairie Flowers A Fair Breeze and Holiday Aspiration-- Voyage of Discovery-- Crabs and Canal Banks-- Snakes and Frogs--A Dying Cuttle-fish Suburbs of Tokio-- Flowering Palm Trees-- A Brazen Serpent Hotel Gossip and Pagan Devotions--Weeping Cherry Tree-- A Quiet Priest and His Garden Yedo Bay-- Matsuwa''s Sacrifice--Shimonoseki--Chinese Money Changers--Tortoise-shell Work--Schools and Missions On the Osaka Railway-- Cold Water Cure for Sin- Hints for Travellers-- Glimpses of Kioto the Old Capital--Buddhists and their Bells-- Salamanders and Singing Frogs Simplicity of Japanese Bouquets-- Artless Art--Flower and Tree Markets-- Symbolism in Flowers A Japanese Writer''s Lamentation-- Some Common Misconceptions--Pijin English and its Uses--Chinese Tones-- Future of the Colloquial Language General Diffusion of Education in Japan-- Educational Influence of Buddhism--Introduction of Arabic Numerals-- A Japanese Writer on Girls'' Schools The Carlyle and Thackeray of Japan-- Geography of the Land The Natives and their Strange Ways-- Bad Schoolboys in Japan-- Apprenticeship A Dull Look-out-- From Chaos to Cosmos--A Rare Hedge of Roses-- How the Japanese treat Sick Trees--Painters and Pine-trees-- Pine-boring Insect-- Some Curious Spiders-- Ants and Aphides--A Flight of Dragon-flies-- Moles and Worms Absence of Degraded Conventionalism--Outlines of Fuji-- The Bamboo in Art--Truth in Greek Art-- A Japanese Picture Gallery Why Some Birds Fly Well and Others Badly-- A New Version of the Sphynx-- Analogies of Nature and Man--The Eight Virtues-- Some Wise Sayings Moated Castles in Miniature--Grim Gateways--Keeping the Wolf from the Door-- Wells and Water-- A Poet and the Morning Glory-- Paper Lanterns Pillows etc.-- Gardening in Miniature