[ The rainy season

We entered the rainy season on Sunday the 7th, and we've had a few rainy days
since then. Yesterday it was overcast and rather cool, and not humid at all.
Today it's been hot and sunny, but again not humid. I think it's going to be
overcast for the next few days. No need to run the a/c just yet, so I am
enjoying this before we turn the calendar page to July. Four more months of
summer ...

Earlier this month I read an article in The Mainichi about a woman from Britain
who visited Japan in 1878[1]. The woman is Isabella L. Bird and the book is
called "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan". I found the quoted passages in the article
to be very interesting, so I started reading the book online at Project
Gutenberg[2] first, then I bought a physical copy.

The book is a series of letters in which she details her travels north from
Tokyo through the Tohoku region, which had many under or completely undeveloped
villages - often primitively so. It fascinates me to contemplate not having
electricity or maps, and the use of beasts of burden for work and transport. I
would have liked to have experienced Japan in the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras,
however the lack of medical advancements at the time does give me pause. She
mentions what I found to be Beriberi at one point, along with other things that
probably came from a lack of soap, proper washing and poor sanitary conditions.
I'm interested in Old Wild West as well, but when I read about consumption
(tuberculosis) then I'm glad I wasn't around at the time.

In her letters she also says that in many of the villages she went to, she was
the center of attention being a foreigner. I first came here in 1996 or so, and
there weren't many tourists from the West at that time. While I was never
gawked at or followed around by groups of people (I heard my father was while
here in the late 1960s) I did get looks on the train, walking down the street
and in stores, etc. Now, because I live in Tokyo, because there are foreigners
everywhere, or because I'm no oil painting, I blend right in to the crowd. I'll
admit it's a bit sad sometimes, but then the older I get the more I enjoy my
privacy and not standing out.

This isn't a book review because I'm not qualified to do one, and I haven't
finished the book yet. I was thinking of reading "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan"
next (Lafcadio Hearn) and some other books set in the 19th century. I haven't
really been surfing the Gopherscape recently.




[1] https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260507/p2g/00m/0et/008000c
[2] https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2184