In feudal era Japan and earlier, when the Samurai were a warrior class, it could be assumed that there were times a Samurai had to go from one region to another. Assuming he is a modest land owner of no great renown, would he travel alone, or would he have retainers that followed with him on his journey?
The most lowly samurai (the jizamurai/ji-samurai, depending on how you like to romanize,) would generally have only very small plots of land, or even none at all in some eras. They might well travel with no other warriors if they didn't have close male relatives if weapon-bearing age. It would be entirely possible that they had no retainers or bodyguards of any sort. It could get to the point where they were little better than peasants with swords, and some (allegedly,) even parted with those, although that's within the realm where legend and history collide.