Taimana Choryu, Slow Tide Harbor, is a thriving port town that is nonetheless one of the most obscure settlements in Rokugan. Although it is located only a short day's ride north of the Imperial City of Otosan Uchi, its existence is unknown to the vast majority of Rokugan's samurai. The Tortoise Clan prefer to keep things this way. Those of other clans who visit or dwell in Slow Tide have sought it out deliberately, usually because they desire the illicit goods and services it offers.
Slow Tide is built on a peninsula in a swampy, irregular lagoon that is itself an offshoot of the Bay of the Golden Sun. The town boasts about three thousand residents, making it by far the largest single Tortoise settlement (although quite small compared to the nearby metropolis of Otosan Uchi). The majority of those living here are peasants and Tortoise samurai, and the difference between the two can sometimes be hard for outsiders to notice. There are also gaijin here, whose presence the Tortoise authorities accept for the sake of improving their trade.