title: Shimoda Story
author: Oliver Statler
description: Commodore Perry forced open the door to Japan, extracting a treaty for two open ports (Shimoda and Hakodate) which ended 200 years of Japanese seclusion, but the first foreigner to move in for an extended stay was Townsend Harris, an unsuccessful businessman determined to make a name for himself.
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  # **Chapter Three**
  
  Only Arizun remembered to latch the door behind them. Their little party went
  skittering up the street, right turn at the main avenue, up the hill toward
  Shibari's house at the best speed they could make. Zeren led the pack for the
  first few streets, but by the time they reached Shibari's walls, Sulun passed
  him.
  
  They scrambled to a halt as they sighted the front doors and saw the small but
  noisy mob gathered thereassorted moneylenders, peddlers' agents, even a cloth
  merchant or two, all waving pieces of parchment and yelling angrily at the
  closed wooden doors, while a pair of city guardsmen were glumly hammering on
  the panels with the butts of their swords.
  
  "Gods," Zeren muttered. "Let me get to the guards, and I can hold off the
  looting for a while." He turned to face the rest of the interrupted party.
  "There must be a back door. Take it. Get in, grab everything you can, 