RICE PLANTING.  The physical configuration of Japan is such that no more than fifteen per cent, of her soil is arable, and only two-thirds of it has, as yet, been brought under cultivation. Rice, being the staple diet of the Japanese, is extensively cultivated throughout the land. Rice fields are divided off into irregular squares and oblong plots by narrow banks of earth, just wide enough for persons to walk in single file. The group of men and women before us is at work transplanting.		“HAKIMONO” (CLOGS).  Instead of shoes the Japanese wear wooden clogs. The commonest kind is made of an oblong piece of wood-generally kiri (Paulowna imperialis) -with high skates and furnished with a thong for the toes to pass in between. In better kinds the wooden block is covered on top with a finely woven matwork. Sandals are the common footgear among workmen; they are, however, worn by others when lightness is specially desired.
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