Inter-island traffic, of course, is largely by ship and there are a considerable and dependable number of such lines with inter-island craft running in size from small ferries to ocean going ships which ply up and down the Sea of Japan. Highways are quite adequate and bus service good. If you want to drive a car yourself you must present your International Driving License to the Traffic Bureau, Prefectural Government and they will automatically grant you a Japanese driving license. § THE JAPANESE. When I was a young boy the family lived for a time in Southern California and it was there that I formed my first opinions of the Japanese. We lived in El Monte, a few miles out of Los Angeles proper and quite a few of our neighbors were Japanese making their livings on small farms. You couldn't have had better neighbors. They were quiet, courteous, thoughtful—and tolerant of we children, even though we did make a habit of raiding strawberry and melon patches. In school the half dozen or more Japanese children invariably took all the top honor roll positions and then when the bell rang went home and instead of playing worked for possibly six hours in the fields with their parents. I was highly impressed by the California Japanese. Nor will you find them basically different in Japan. They are a polite, good natured, honest, hard working, intelligent, progressive, family loving, good food loving, and above all, cleanly people worthy of your respect. Language will offer you few barriers if you sojourn or retire in Japan. English has become the international language of commerce and the Japanese teach it widely in their schools. It is probably more often studied than all the rest of the western languages put together. Their way of life is, of course, considerably different from the American and European way. It must be remembered that within the memory of Japanese still alive this was a feudalistic country living under a social system that our own western countries have not known for centuries. However, many of the remnants of this
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