Much less doth the emperor suffer new ones to be built in any part of his dominions. The castles where the prince or lords reside are commonly seated at the extremity of some large town, which encompasses them in the form of a half-moon[171]. “Most of the towns are very populous and well built. The streets are generally speaking regular, running straight forward, and crossing each other at right angles, as if they had been laid out at one time, and according to one general ground-plot. The towns are not surrounded with walls and ditches. The two chief gates, where people go in and out, are no better than the ordinary gates which stand at the end of every street, and are shut at night. Sometimes there is part of a wall built contiguous to them on each side, merely for ornament’s sake. In larger towns, where some prince resides, these two gates are a little handsomer, and kept in better repair, and there is commonly a strong guard mounted, all out of respect for the residing prince. The rest of the town generally lies open to the fields, and is but seldom enclosed even with a common hedge or ditch. In our journey to court I counted thirty-three towns and residences of princes of the empire, some whereof we passed through, but saw others only at a distance. Common towns and large villages or boroughs, on our road, I computed at from seventy-seven to eighty or upwards[172]. “I could not help admiring the great number of shops we met with in all the cities, towns, and villages; whole streets being scarce anything else but continued rows of shops on both sides, and I own, for my part, that I could not well conceive how the whole country is able to furnish customers enough, only to make the proprietors get a livelihood, much less to enrich them. “The villages along the highways in the great island Nippon, have among their inhabitants but few farmers, the far greater part being made up by people who resort there to get their livelihood either by selling some odd things to travellers, or by servile daily labor. Most of these villages consist only of one long street, bordering on each side of the highway, which is sometimes extended to such a length as almost to reach the next village. “The houses of country people and husbandmen consist of four low walls covered with a thatched or shingled roof. In the back part of the house the floor is somewhat raised above the level of the street, and there it is they place the hearth; the rest is covered with neat mats. Behind the street door hang rows of coarse ropes made of straw, not to hinder people from coming in or going out, but to serve instead of a lattice-window to prevent such as are without from looking in and observing what passes within doors. As to household goods they have but few. Many children and great poverty is generally what they are possessed of; and yet with some small provision of rice, plants, and roots, they live content and happy.