I am going to take a stroll down one of the Japanese villages, have some food, have a nice time. But I just got a call from Signor Volpe, he wants me to get some info on the Japanese aristocracy. As I continue walking down the street I pull out one of the devices that TTI gave me, it lets me find certain places with absolute accuracy. I am going to the house of an aristocrat, so I type in the "the nearest house of a Japanese aristocrat. A little beam of light comes out of the device and I follow it down the road.
I have been walking for some time now, and I am in the richer part of the city, the houses are larger than the little huts on the outskirts of the city. In front of ever house that I walk by I see a gateposts of varying height, I know from my training at TTI that the gatepost represents the rank of the occupants. I come to a place at the road were it makes a 90 degree right turn and in the inside corner lies a house that I huge compared to the rest, there is a man made lake in front of the house with a lot a large docile coy in it, the man who lives here doesn't scrimp. I open the front gate, walk up the steps, and loudly knock on the front door, in a couple seconds the door is opened by a man that I recognize as Fujiwara Machinaga.
My first thought is "dang that TTI device works really well." I introduce myself as a ambassador from a different country which is pretty close to the truth, I tell him that our people recognize his great power and wealth and decided that it would be more productive if I met with him rather than the emperor, He, of coarse was delighted. After the greetings are finished and we are comfortably sitting on the ground I ask him about his role in the government. He says that there are many ways that can use to control the inner workings of the government, one of the things he does is that because he is rich, he is very influential, he influences the people and the emperor, he made sure that his daughters married people in the royal family.
"Did you know," Fujiwara asked, "that I was the step-father of four emperors, and the grandfather of three more?"
"Well," I replied," I can't say I did."
After my discussion with Fujiwara Machinaga I set out to explore the rest of the city, I saw the court were there was a group of nobles playing kemari, a game were you try to keep a leather ball in the air for as long as possible. I look at my watch and see, to my dismay that it is time for me to go back to present.
I find a discrete location, set my time to the present, and off I go.
