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splendid, which assertion, when compared with that of their andons, may well be true.
At Murei the road branches off in a W. direction, thus leaving the Chikumagawa Valley, and now runs to Furuana from whence it bends N. to Sekigawa, the frontier-place of Echigo. The prettiest spot on this part of the road is Nojiri-shuku, a place situated on the Fuyòkò lake, which is surrounded by low hills covered with thickets. What rendered this beautiful spot all the more impressive for the time at least, was a heavy thunderstorm, which overtook us here, and which formed a curious contrast with the snow-covered mountain tops we had been sighting since leaving Oyeda, in a N. W. direction.
The small Ichigawa river forms here the border between Shinano and Echigo; it is here but a mountain-stream, rushing forth with great velocity over rocks. Between its steep and densely grown high borders, it is crossed by a rustic bridge of singular construction.
Between Sekigawa and Sekiyama (3 ri) the road is entirely shut in by mountains, and when it rains heavily, it has sometimes more the appearance of a stream than of a road, with not even a footpath to be seen. It passes zigzag up hill and down hill, with very steep inclines, and is one of the most charming parts of the road between Yedo and Niigata. The slopes of the high hills are grown all over with azaleas and other flowering shrubs—one valley leads over the top of the hills into another, and when looking upwards from the bottom of those beautiful valleys with the blue and white, thundering and foaming streams, all hastening to the Sekigawa, one cannot help being moved deeply.
After Sekiyama the country becomes much flatter, but the road remains awfully bad, especially between the villages of Matsusaki (2 ri from Sekiyama) and Araï (1 ri before reaching Takada), where it is very rugged and full of holes. At Araï the road descends into the valley of the Arakawa, a left tributary of the Sekigawa; here the road becomes much better, smoother and shaded by a row of matsu trees on both sides.
