On Mon, 5 Jul 1999, William Morse wrote:

Can anyone think of a plausible explanation for a Japanese family (you know 
which one) to be living in an insula in republican Rome?

Utterly and completely impossible.  Japanese culture did not exist in any
recognizable sense, and Japan was a 100% backwater with minimal cultural
contact with China when Republican Rome existed.  Even the ancestors of
the modern Japanese were only beginning to move into the western most
fringes of Japan at the time, and it was ruled by the Ainu.
 

The best (okay, only) thing I've been able to think of is that Soun and his 
wife took the silk road but since I know next to nothing about Japanese 
history before Tales of the Genji I don't want to open up that can of worms 
just yet.

If you want historical plausibility, I'm afraid it's impossible.  Even
late Imperial Rome, Japan as a nation is only barely starting to come into
existence, and most of modern Japan is still ruled by the Ainu.

 John Biles
Emperor of all He Surveys
http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html

PLEASE!  NO TRACTOR-TRAILERS!
--When I saw this sign in the Shoney's parking lot, I knew I had entered
the Deep South.