Into the Rising Sun 14

                  ‘I thought I was the only one hurrying toward the East,
                   but the plum flowers above the fence were ahead of me.’
                                                                                                Norimitsu

If any of the sleepy samurai on our train were contemplating suicide, nobody was spilling their guts. In Yokohama, Robyn and I boarded the Yokosuka Line that would take us further south. We dangled from the rafters, past the point where Matthew Perry and his four Black Ships first cracked open the fortress cocoon that Japan had been for the previous two hundred years. The sakoku ‘chained country’ foreign policy of the Tokugawa Shogunate had been unambiguous. No foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country, on penalty of death. On July 14, 1853, the Commodore came ashore with an entourage of 300 officers, marines, and musicians, passed through ranks of armed samurai, and handed a letter from President Fillmore to the Shogun’s officials. He told them that he would return for an answer and, three days later, left Yokohama.
Twenty-eight minutes further south, Robyn and I were almost there. Surrounded on three sides by mountains, like a cooking hearth with only one open side, before there were roads, the only way here was through high narrow passes, the ‘Seven Mouths of Kamakura.’ One last green and yellow Enoshima Electric railway car clacked and clattered us though six more stations, until the sign I had been searching for rolled around the last corner. Shichirigahama. 
“Here?” Asked Robyn.
“Here.” I said.
“What’s here?” She asked.
“The beginning of the Samurai Road.” We pulled our Ospreys out onto the single side platform. Outside the dimly lit small station was the smell of the ocean, and a woodcut full moon shimmering on it. We hiked along the breakwater, until I found the road that took us up the hill, and a path that took us onto the grounds of the Kamakura Prince Hotel. The lobby was empty, except for the clerk. He bowed. We bowed.
“Your special request.” He said, eventually handing me the key.
“What special request?” Robyn asked.
“I’ll show you tomorrow.” I said. And we all bowed, and Robyn and I took the elevator to our room. Outside the night was still and quiet. Moonlight on the waves seeped through the windows of our corner room. Tranquility base here.