After passing the Karasugawa from the left to the right bank at Takasaki, the left bank of the Usuigawa is followed up to Sakamoto. The Usuigawa is not navigable so high up; its bed being covered with stones between which the rapid stream works its way, now through one, then through different channels, over which rustic bridges are built. The scenery becomes more and more beautiful, and after having passed Matsuida, we are soon in the mountains. The Nakasendo is practicable to this point for jinrikishas, with two good coolies to draw them up the steep inclines. For waggons drawn by horses this part of the Nakasendo is impracticable; such waggons could not advance further than Takasaki.
The valley of the Usuigawa becomes with every step, as it were, narrower and more picturesque; the mountain slopes on both sides of the river are covered in early summer with a carpet of blooming fugi flowers, which form, with the dark green of the sugi trees, the rapidly running streamlets, falling from the mountain slopes and crossing the read, the winding Nakasendo itself, and the charmingly situated mountain villages everywhere at a distance, a really fine picture—drawing even forth some admiring remarks from my interpreter.
The Japanese mountain villages have, at least in the districts which I have seen, a quite different aspect from those in the plains. They consist chiefly of a row of houses on each side of the road, thus forming a street which constitutes the whole village. The houses are notable by their wooden roofs on which blocks of stone are laid, and their poor and dirty appearance.
About 21/2ri from Matsuïda the Usuïgawa is crossed over a bridge, and here a straight road with 160 houses
