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The whole of this part of the route can be done in jinrikisha. The ground is generally level, and several rivers must be passed. Before Shiba is reached (fourth day) a large tributary of the Tonegawa is met with. The bed of this river is very broad, and its current rapid.
The traveller passes through very important villages, Ota, Sano, Tochigi and Kanuma. These large centres are not very agreeable; the inhabitants are as yet not accustomed to see foreign travellers there, and it is rather difficult to obtain a lodging. If it is intended to make a halt in these large villages, the best thing is to send a servant beforehand to collect information. The local police is often timid.
Before reaching Nasawara commences that superb row of trees which perhaps is unparallelled in the world. Both sides of the road as far as Nikkô are planted with a double row of trees (sugi), three centuries old, planted, it is said, by the daimiô living when Gongen Sama’s successor founded Nikkô.
It is to be regretted that the peasants from the neighbourhood put fire to the surrounding grass and bushes. Already the fire has several times reached these magnificent avenues, and some day their total destruction might happen. May I venture to hope that the President of the Asiatic Socity will call the attention of the Government to this point?
At Imaichi this road joins the direct road from Tôkiô to Nikkô, and from that point the trees are, if possible, yet more remarkable. It would be sad indeed if such an avenue should disappear, even if only partially, through the carelessness of the local authorities.
In order to afford tourists facilities for making changes in the above itinerary I shall give the same hereafter in every detail.
I do not intend to say anything particularly upon Nikkô, because it has already been the subject of several descriptions. I shall only warn the tourists that yearly from the 24th to the 30th August the roads are swarming with pilgrims, who then travel in numbers to Nikkô and to
