It seems like it wasn't very much fun being the Emperor of feudal Japan. The country was really ruled by the Shogun; the Emperor was the symbol of Japan, the titular head, but in fact he was the Shogun's prisoner. 300 years worth of Emperors were born in and never allowed out of the Emperor's palace in Kyoto. A beautiful place, very peaceful and large, surrounded by gorgeous parks and gardens; but still...

Not that it looks like Shogun was such a hot job, either. There was no point in assassinating the Emperor, because that was an inherited position (the 1st Emperor was descended from the Sun Goddess) but if you assassinated the Shogun you could get to be the Shogun, which for some reason many people seemed to want to be. So the Shogun was always in danger. In the Shogun's palace in Kyoto, the floors between rooms (Justine, you were asking) are called nightingale floors. They're constructed of thick wood planks, with a built-in squeak when you walk on them that sounds like the singing of nightingales. This is so you can't sneak up on the Shogun, and it's what gave rise to the legend of ninja assassins being able to walk on the walls or ceiling, because if anyone ever did get near the Shogun, it was assumed he hadn't come across the floor.

The Shogun had no male servants. He was attended by 1000 women. Most were only servants, but if the Shogun became interested in taking one for what my guide delicately called a "girlfriend," he would ask her name. She would be brought to his room that night.