Last year was the 150th anniversary of the first appearance of U.S. Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry's "Black Ships" in Edo (now Tokyo) Bay. Their mission, by order of President Millard Fillmore, was to demand -- under threat of force if necessary -- that Japan, closed to the world for more than two centuries, should conclude a trade pact with the United States and provide coaling stations and ports for U.S. vessels.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Perry's return to hear the shogun's answer -- an answer that took concrete form with the March 31 signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa -- Japan's first international treaty and a document regarded as a catalyst for the regime change that came with the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
This weekend, the place to be on the archipelago is Shimoda, a small city near the tip of the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture, where the annual Black Ships Festival is held. The festival starts Friday and continues through Sunday.