21st Day of Summer 1297
The Imperial City of Edo!
The day following Children’s Day (which little Kioko found most enjoyable, except a for a little homesickness and tears for her real mother later that night), Roka, Udo, Yuki, Miya, Kioko, Yuki’s mother Akiko, and whole bunch of Roka’s minions, boarded the old sea dog Tanak Abe’s boat and set sail for Edo.
The trip took nine days and was largely uneventful, except for Udo – who’s ability to change into animal forms proved quite entertaining, especial when he balanced a ball on his nose in seal-form.
As it was, the ship made port in Edo late on the evening of the 20th Day of Summer.
Sleeping the night on the ship, the party disembarked the next morning to seek out Roka and Yuki’s contacts who would be waiting for them somewhere in the city. The first thing everyone noticed as they got off the ship, was just how many Chinese there were in the city – in fact, the only Nipponese immediately visible were those in the harbor prepping their Dragon Boats for the upcoming Races in just twelve days.
That, and the city itself was massively huge! Sprawling in its greatness over the land – and to the west, just over a hundred miles away, yet visible in the clearness of the day – Mount Fuji – the highest mountain in all of Nippon, rising to almost thirteen thousand feet! The beautiful perfectly cone-shaped mountain that legend said held the slumbering form of a terrible dragon – imprisoned there eons ago by the very gods!
In fact, Edo was larger than anything anyone had ever seen – Why, the fortress City of Sendai itself would barely fill the confines of the Imperial Castle alone. And the rest of the city could easily encompass dozens or more Sendai’s in its awesome vastness!
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Topic: Dragon Boat Races (Read 45842 times)