Utsuro-Bune

my understanding that during time of shogun the foreigners were just executed, so it is kind of merciful to just let go.

Like Moses, too. Bit of a theme going here. Only, she was an adult already; it's curious that she was presumed royalty like the other two. Perhaps she started her journey as a baby, like Skjöldr and Moses, but people just kept putting a little food in and sending her on her way.

If we define 'alien' as humanoid traveler from distant land, foreign language and exotic vehicle, then we're most of the way there :)

Very much agree that the UFO thing is a red herring. But perhaps Occam's Razor actually points to an even simpler explanation, that of it being a reoccurring mythological trope that was repackaged as an historical event.

That said, I would love if it actually were the case that a mysterious woman from, say, the Dutch East Indies — to make up a random, semi-plausible example — really did wash ashore in a Japanese fishing village. Sounds like a sequel to "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" (awesome book by the way).

I realize on further reflection that that was an idiotic comment. How do you take a corrach to Japan? Overland, probably.

True in a sense, if the woman in the boat wasn't from Japan.