Chapter 15
Rachel walked along a lonely dirt road between towns in a mountainous district in Western Japan. Her clothing, a black full-length robe and small brown bib-like garment worn over the heart, signified her as belonging to the Zen sect of Buddhism. As night fell, she realized she had taken a wrong turn, and was lost. She continued along the same path and eventually saw a light at the top of a hill. There, she found a small hermitage built for solitary priests, called an “anjitsu.” Inside was an elderly priest, but the old man refused to give her a night’s lodging. Instead, he showed Rachel the path to a nearby town.
When she arrived, she saw it wasn’t a modern town, but an ancient one without even electricity. At the town’s only inn, she found some forty people had gathered. None
