Page:Eliza Scidmore--Jinrikisha days in Japan.djvu/63



All the legations are now on the high ground in the western part of the city near the castle moats. All legation buildings are owned and kept up by their respective governments, except that of the United States, which still uses rented property, although the Japanese Government has offered the land as a gift, if the United States will erect a permanent edifice.

The English possess a whole colony of buildings in the midst of a large walled park, affording offices and residences for all the staff. Germany, Russia, France, and the Netherlands own handsome houses with grounds. The Chinese legation occupies part of an old yashiki, inside whose bright vermilion and pea-green gate-way the Chinese gate keepers lounge, and over which the triangular yellow dragon flag flies.

The show places of Tokio are the many government museums at Uyéno Park, the many mortuary temples of the Tokugawa Shoguns at Shiba and Uyéno, the popular temple of Asakusa, and the Shinto temple at the Kudan, with its race-course and view of the city; but the Kanda, the Kameido, the Hachiman temples, many by-streets and queer corners, the out door fairs, the peddlers, and shops give the explorer a better understanding of the life of the people than do the great monuments. Here and there he comes upon queer old nameless temples with ancient trees, stones, lanterns, tanks, and urns that recall a forgotten day of religious influence, when they possessed priests, revenues, and costly altars. 47