I had a job to write about the Ikaho hot springs. However, unfortunately, I had only stayed there a single night. I had taken the opportunity to do so in my high school days, when I had climbed Mt. Akagi and Mount Myōgi with two of my friends; this was not sufficient enough to write something showy. First of all, I didn’t even remember what sort of neighborhood or what sort of water it was. I have a misty recollection or recklessly ascending through the mountain’s cover of young leaves in a train. And when we were in some inn or another, we met with a handsome gentlemen staying next door; he so loved the spring water that we went to the bathhouse six or more times the next day, starting in the morning. Following that, we were completely and utterly spent that even walking down the hallway was a great labor. And yet even in that state kicking it back in the inn was unthinkable, so around sunset us three and the gentleman went to Takazaki Station.
When we soon arrived at the station, we realized that we did not have enough in our wallets for even the fare to Ueno. So then, though it was remarkably troublesome, we explained the situation to this gentleman and he loaned us the one yen and twenty sen. As I said above, though I might speak of Ikaho, I have no memories of the sight of Keizan, either. All I recall of this gentleman is that each time he talked about the hot springs, he seemed to float. Whenever he was in the water, he would say to anybody that he wanted to make a small, one-person automobile or something. When I was looking at today’s newspaper, I saw that it seems that he’s to make a two-person one, but there’s no word on a small, one-person automobile. I wonder how that gentleman is doing nowadays.
(August 1919)