Fri. 15 [15 April 1898] Tremendous crowd to see us start. Off at 9 a caravan of 6 kuromas, 2 men each. Beautiful very hot day. 11/2 hour over plain, cherries and mustard. Entered foothills. Rafts of bamboo floating down river. Reached Nihongi before 12 and stopped to lunch in a tolerable tea house. From there a very long pull up to the top of the pass, bare and fine with a view clouded by heat haze of the islands and sea. Had to walk up. Rings of fire on the hill top, burning bamboo scrub. Then down past a charming shrine under cryptomerias to a chaya hung with pilgrim towels and on to Ao, arrived about 4 where we had nearly all the top floor of a pretty good chayu. Crowd an awful bore. The boys attempted to swim in the river and were surrounded by 200 people. I had a bath in a cupboard screened off from the kitchen quite dark and I shd think very dirty. We all slept sound however. Decoration of willows in my room too pretty.