It is with no little trepidation that I have ventured to enlist myself in the large army of those who have written about Japan, and I can only plead the following reasons as excuse for having done so. When I first went to Japan, my main object was to photograph the country to my heart's content—for my camera has always been, to me, one of the things which made life most worth living. During my travels, however, I took copious notes; and as the fortunes of a wanderer led me several times back again to this beautiful land, these notes became so voluminous that the suggestion of friends, resident in Japan, that I should embody my experiences in a book, written round some of my photographs, was an idea which presented no great difficulty in the way of achievement. Indeed, interesting experiences were so many, during my three years of travel in the country, that the most perplexing problem was what to omit, so as to keep the size of the book within reasonable limits. Descriptions of many incidents and places have therefore been ruthlessly expunged in this process of elimination; but in what has been retained will be found some account of the best of everything I have learned about Japan.
    The beaten tracks, including as they do the most famous points of interest, are naturally the best tracks; but in the hope of making the book as readable as possible, I have included a few experiences I had far from tourist haunts; and, to lend variety, have added some that befell me during the late war, together with accounts of the wonderful work of the present-day artist-craftsmen and of the old-time swordsmiths.
    This letterpress, such as it is, I oiler in all humility, for I make no pretence to any skill with my pen, and am fully conscious of its many shortcomings. My object, however, will have been more than attained if the book should help to make the manners, customs, and scenery of Japan better known—especially the scenery of some districts which have not been described in detail before.
    I cannot too warmly thank my friends Prof B. H. Chamberlain and Mr. B. W. Mason—joint authors of Murray's Handbook to Japan—for the help their guidance has given me. I wish also to acknowledge my indebtedness to Messrs. Underwood and Underwood and Messrs. The H. C. White Co. for permission to reproduce several photographs, made by myself, of which they own the copyright; to the proprietors of the Century Magazine, The World's Work, and Country Life for leave to reprint accounts of my ascent of Asama-yama, my visit to Namikawa-San, and the work of the old-time swordsmiths, abbreviated versions of which first appeared in the columns of these journals; and to Mr. C. J. Tsuchiya for his consent, received after the body of this work had gone to press, to quote several extracts from his Guide-book to Hakone. To others, whose books have given me assistance as well as pleasure, I have made acknowledgment as I have quoted from them.
    Lastly, I desire to express herewith my most cordial thanks to all those kind friends in Japan, both foreign and Japanese, who extended to me such warm hospitality and courtesy, and thus rendered invaluable help in forming this little record of work, which to me has been a labour of love.

H. G. PONTING.

London, May 1910.