Having ridden upwards of two miles through Shinagawa, they stopped at a small inn, pleasantly seated on the seaside, from which they had a full view of the city and harbor of Yedo, crowded with many hundred ships and boats of all sizes and shapes. The smallest lay nearest the town, and the largest one or two leagues off, not being able to go higher by reason of the shallowing of the water. “Our Bugiō,” says Kämpfer, “quitted his norimono here and went on horseback, people of his extraction not being suffered to enter the capital in a norimono. We travelled near a mile to the end of the suburb of Shinagawa, and then entered the suburbs of Yedo, which are only a continuation of the former, there being nothing to separate them but a small guard-house. The bay comes here so close to the foot of the hill that there is but one row of small houses between it and the road, which, for some time, runs along the shore, but soon widens into several irregular streets of a considerable length, which, after about half an hour’s riding, became broader, more uniform, handsome, and regular, whence, and from the great throngs of people, we concluded that we were now got into the city. We kept to the great middle street, which runs northward across the whole city, though somewhat irregularly, passing over several stately bridges laid across small rivers and muddy canals, which run on our left towards the castle, and on our right towards the sea, as did also several streets turning off from the great one. “The throng of people along this chief and middle street, which is about one hundred and twenty-five feet broad, is incredible. We met as we rode along many numerous trains of princes of the empire and great men at court, and ladies richly apparelled, carried in norimono; and, among other people, a company of firemen on foot, about one hundred in number, walking in much the same military order as ours do in Europe. They were clad in brown leather coats to defend them against the fire; and some carried long pikes, others fire-hooks, upon their shoulders. Their captain rode in the middle. On both sides of the street were multitudes of well-furnished shops of merchants and tradesmen, drapers, silk-merchants, druggists, idol-sellers, booksellers, glass-blowers, apothecaries, and others. A black cloth hanging down covers one half of the shop, of which the front projects a little way into the street, so as to expose to view curious patterns of the goods offered for sale. We took notice that scarce anybody here had curiosity enough to come out of his house to see us go by, as they had done in other places, probably because such a small retinue as ours had nothing remarkable or uncommon to amuse the inhabitants of so populous a city.