Handbook for Travellers in Japan – Including the Whole Empire from Yezo to Formosa
Completely fascinating. This digitized traveler’s handbook for Japan from 1903. The entire book is online for free from OpenLibrary.org.
I just started reading it and am already engrossed.
Did you know you can get to Japan in a mere 16 days from San Francisco? And with trains, domestic transportation has become much easier. There are even daily steamships from Yokohama to Kobe. I didn’t know that Shunbun no Hi (the vernal equinox) used to be called Shunki Koureisai. And I’m only up to page two.
Please check it out. It’s really a fascinating read. “Handbook for Travellers in Japan – Including the Whole Empire from Yezo to Formosa”.
http://www.archive.org/stream/handbookfortravejohn#page/n9/mode/2up
I’m old enough to remember when Taiwan was called Formosa, but I didn’t realize it was ever part of the Japanese Empire. So I learned something just from the title!
I didn’t realize that either. Or that Hokkaido was once called Yezo. Every page in that book has really interesting information on it. I’ve even found Japanese grammatical forms that have disappeared.
doug