The Japanese are proud of and delight in the beautiful scenery of their country; and every one who has opportunity, including nearly all the inhabitants, male and female, makes a walking tour at some period of his life over the country, visiting the more remarkable temples, which are generally placed in favorable sites amid woods, and surrounded by fine forest-trees, the immediate precincts being kept with the most scrupulous care and nicety of gardening. Nowhere are the temples more magnificent or the scenery finer than about Miako; and it had been for long the custom for the Emperor to go out and visit some one of the temples in the neighborhood of Miako, and offer worship. In the year 1722 a day was set apart in spring, and again in autumn, on which the whole court should annually go out on a sort of gigantic picnic--the Emperor drawn in a car by oxen, and accompanied by all the Koongays--when they visit some of the temples most renowned for their sanctity or for the beauty of the grounds. This procession is called Miyuki or Gokowo. There are two gardens adjoining the palace in Miako, Shoongakuji and Katsura, which are said to be most exquisitely laid out and kept in beautiful order. The gardeners who have the charge of these gardens belong to a class or sect known as Gayra, a people who live apart by themselves in a few villages in the neighborhood of the capital. They are said to have kept themselves apart in customs and religion for many generations. In religion, they say there is but one God, and that all men below the Emperor are equal. They, as Quakers with us, will not use terms of respect to other men, such as “kudasare,” or call men by titles, as “sama,” similar to “esquire”; saying that they only adhere to old customs in so doing. They are themselves respected as being of old and pure descent, and their children are often selected by Koongays for adoption. They principally follow the occupation of gardeners, or that of breeders of horses. In the year 1639, the Portuguese and Spaniards having been expelled, and the Dutch factory alone left at Hirado, the commissioner was ordered to remove his people and offices to the small factory on Desima, “the Outer Island,” at the head of the inlet of Nagasaki, and trade was prohibited at all other places in Japan, and to any other nation, with the exception of the Chinese.