The Twelve Kingdoms: Shadow of the Moon

fortifications are there?"
    "Eh?"
    Youko pointed out to Rakushun where the high walls could be seen here and there rising above the surrounding houses and stores.
    "Well, technically, a city's outer walls are called the ramparts, and the inner wall protecting the keep is called the bailey. In Kou, cities with baileys are rare. Those are probably the remnants of an old rampart left over from when the city grew bigger and expanded beyond it."
    "Wow."
    Refugees from Kei were camped out at the foot of the ramparts and in the plaza, in neat and tidy rows of similar-looking tents that gave no indication of disorder. According to Rakushun, the tents were also provisioned by the local government.
    "So, is this a provincial capital?"
    "No, a prefectural seat."
    "The prefecture is one step below a province?"
    "Two steps below. Starting with hamlets of twenty-five households, it goes, from smallest to largest: hamlet, town, township, county, prefecture, district, province. A district consists of fifty-thousand households."
    "How many districts are in a province?"
    "It depends on the location."
    "If this is a prefectural seat, then district and provincial capitals must be huge."
    According to official designations, a district capital was a city that was home to a district administration, also called a district seat. For administrative purposes, districts were designated as having populations of fifty thousand households, though that didn't necessarily mean that fifty thousand people lived in a single district. Generally speaking, it terms of urbanization, a town was bigger than a hamlet, a district capital bigger than a county seat, the capital of a province bigger than a district capital.
    "How is it that En and Kou can be this different?"
    Rakushun answered with a thin smile. "The difference is in the characters of the rulers."
    "The difference in their characters?"
    Rakushun glanced back at her and nodded. "The Royal En is an unusually enlightened monarch. He is said to have reigned for five hundred years. The Royal Kou has been around for at most fifty years. He's hardly in the same league."
    Youko blinked. "Five hundred years?"
    "Exceeded only by the Royal Sou of the Kingdom of Sou. It's said that the longer a king rules, the more enlightened his governance becomes. Sou is also a wealthy country."
    "A single king reigns for five hundred years?"
    "Of course. Kings are gods, not ordinary human beings. The degree to which Heaven allows a king to govern is commensurate with the caliber of the king. So, the better a king rules, the longer he will reign."
    "Huh."
    "A kingdom undergoing a change of regimes will always fall into chaos, while a kingdom with a wise ruler prospers. In particular, the Royal En has proved to be a most shrewd reformer. And speaking of enlightened monarchs, Royal Sou is said to be one as well, who has made the Kingdom of Sou a place of peace and tranquility. En, on the other hand, is, as you say, a 'happening' place."
    "It is, indeed."
    "No doubt about it. Oh, here's the prefecture building."
    Rakushun pointed to a large brick building. The walls and eaves were decorated after a Chinese fashion, and though the architecture was in the "western" style, the combination did not clash. The interior decor was similarly a potpourri of Occidental and Oriental tastes.

    The first thing Youko said after they left was, "This place is incredible."
    Rakushun nodded. "I always knew that Kou was hard on kaikyaku, but I wouldn't have believed that En was this different."
    Youko agreed. She examined the wooden card she had been given by the administrator. On the front was a red seal and beneath it in black ink, "Conferred in Ugou, Tei Province, Haku District, Shuuyou Prefecture." On the back was her name. It was her identification card.
    The official Youko had been brought to asked for her name, her address in Japan, her occupation and other details, including, most surprisingly, her postal code and area code, before handing over the identification card.
    "By the way, Youko, um, what are postal codes and area codes?"
    The official had asked the same question as Rakushun. Apparently he didn't know either. "Just following regulations," he said, opening a volume in a set of books. Sneaking a peek at the Japanese-style bound volume, Youko saw that it contained rows of numbers printed with woodblock characters. Only after referencing one of the volumes did he hand over the card.
    "A postal code, or zip code, is a number you