The next day (Friday, March 9) brought them, most of the way through a flat, well-cultivated country, to the city of Suruga, capital of the province of that name. The streets, broad and regular, crossed each other at right angles, and were full of well-furnished shops. Paper stuffs, curiously flowered, for hats, baskets, boxes, etc., also various manufactures of split and twisted reeds, and all sorts of lackered ware, were made here. There was also a mint here, as well as at Miyako and Yedo, where koban and ichibu were coined. It had a castle of freestone, well defended with ditches and high walls. A few miles from Suruga were kept certain war-junks for the defence of the bay of Tōtōmi; and just beyond, upon a high mountain, stood the fortress of Kunō, esteemed by the Japanese impregnable. It was built to contain the imperial treasures, but they had since been removed to Yedo. In the course of the next day (Saturday, March 10) the road turned inland, in order to cross the great river Fujigawa, which enters into the head of the bay, taking its rise in the high, snowy mountain Fuji-no-Yama.[22] It was crossed in flat broad-bottomed boats, constructed of thin planks, so as on striking the rocks to yield and slip over. The mountain Fuji, whence this river takes its rise and name, towers in a conical form above all the surrounding hills, and is seen at a great distance. It is ascended for the worship of the Japanese god of the winds, to whom the Yamabushi, or mountain priests, are consecrated, and who frequently repeat the words _Fuji Yama_,, in discoursing or begging. It takes three days to ascend this mountain; but the descent can be made, so Kämpfer was told, in three hours, by the help of sledges of reeds or straw, tied about the waist, by means of which one may glide down over the snow in winter and the sand in summer, it being surprisingly smooth and even. Japanese poets cannot find words, Kämpfer tells us, nor Japanese painters colors, in which to represent this mountain as they think it deserves. [Illustration: THE MARKETING AND PREPARATION OF FOOD: A KITCHEN, SHOWING UTENSILS; A FISHMONGER]