Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 536

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

476

TOKYO

From these the traveller may obtain a fine view of the animated river-life of the Sumida, whose waters are always covered with junks and boats of all descriptions.

A great part of the remaining area forming the district north of the castle, a few years ago covered by paddy fields, is to-day covered by "suburbs" of great extent, well served by the municipal tramway system. There are also extensive pleasure gardens, such as Asuka-yama, and neat little villages. The part west of the palace contains 50 temples, and a number of nobles' palaces. The district on the south of the palace, with an area of about 17 square miles, eontains about 60 temples. The most remarkable among them is Fudo-sama in Meguro.

Several great fires have swept Tokyo during the last two decades, and these have led to great improvements and widening of the streets. The last of these broke out on September 1st, 1923, following upon a very severe earthquake. The casualties due to this terrible visitation were as follows, according to a return issued in November by the Home Office :-Dead 68,215: missing (believed to be dead), 39,304; injured, 42,135. The number of houses destroyed is said to have been 316,000, or 71 per cent. of the whole of the buildings of the city; and no fewer than 1,360,000 people were rendered homeless. Much has been done during the past year to repair the terrible damage- done to the city, but it will take some years yet before permanent new structures can. be erected to take the place of all those that were destroyed.

Tramways have been extended in all directions; a ten-minute service is maintain- ed with Yokohama. The main streets and those adjacent to them are lighted by electricity, and the remainder by gas. Lines of telegraphs, amounting in all to 200 miles, connect the various parts of the city with one another, and with the country lines. The main streets are broad and fairly well kept.

The soldiers and police are dressed in uniform on the western model. Though numbers appear in European garb, the mass of the people still wear the native dress.

The environs of Tokyo are very pieturesque and offer a great variety of pleasant walks or rides. Foreigners will find mueli to interest them in the country round. The finest scenery is at the northern and western sides of the city, where the country is surrounded by beautiful hills, from which there is a distant view of the noble mountains of Hakone, while beyond rises in solitary grandeur the towering peak of Fuji-san covered with snow the greater part of the year. The population of Tokyo as disclosed by the Census of 1920 was 2,173,162.

The native Press is represented by some 20 daily papers, and many monthly and fortnightly publications. There is a daily paper run by Japanese in the English language called the Japan Times and Mail, which is representative of Japanese in- terests, and the Japan Advertiser, which was published for many years in Yokohama, is published in the capital. The Far East, a weekly illustrated newspaper, British owned, is also published in Tokyo. There are 1,225 schools of different classes, in- eluding several universities, as distinct from the Imperial, or official. The best hotel for foreigners is the Imperial. Another new and well-equipped hotel, frequented principally by Japanese, is the Palace Hotel, also called the Tokyo Kaikan. A third is. the Tokyo Station Hotel.

Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 536

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