I Teach Kendo in Tokyo Chapter 9: Cicadas chirping

He Ma thought about the vocabulary before asking Jinguji Temple: "Aren't your family familiar with sacrifices and tributes? What tribute should I prepare when I go to the shrine in this hot spring town?"

Tamamo said with a smile: "I'm not familiar with all the shrines. After all, human memory is limited. There are so many shrines in Japan, and there are always some that I don't know about. To be on the safe side, it's definitely right to be prepared to pay. "

Kazuma: "How vulgar it is to talk about money..."

"Although the shrine enshrines gods, it is ultimately run by people. The donation of money helps the shrine's operation, and the existence of the enshrined will give some face."

As soon as Yuzao finished speaking, Mikako complained: "Suddenly, I feel that the gods are very marketable! If the shrine is not supported by anyone, will the gods come out to work to subsidize the shrine?"

Ms. Kamashima seemed to be amused by Mikako's whimsy, and suppressed her laughter.

Tamamo said seriously, "No way. If there are no shrines to worship, the gods will die, leaving only the ruined ruins that have lost their blessings."

He Ma frowned slightly: "People's beliefs are actually the cornerstones that maintain the existence of gods? Then in modern society, as humans believe in other things, will new gods be born? For example, money, will money worship? Will it bring forth new gods?"

Tamamo tilted her head and thought for a while: "This... I don't know, I've never seen it before... I mean, I've never heard your point of view."

What she wanted to say was "I have never seen a new **** born before", but she changed her words temporarily considering that Mikako and Ms. Kashima were still present.

If people's beliefs can really give birth to new gods, then I am afraid that a new **** named Mr. Sai has been born long ago.

Kamashima glanced at Ms. Kamashima. The lady had begun to feel that the chat was a bit strange, so he changed the subject: "What time does the shrine open?"

"Theoretically, you can go to the shrine 24 hours a day." Ms. Kashima smiled, "But if you want to sign or buy amulets, or write an ema, you have to wait for the shrine to open, every day from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm Four o'clock."

Kazuma glanced at the watch in the lobby. It was not yet three o'clock in the afternoon, and there was still time to cross the hot spring street to see the shrine.

"Namikako will be handed over to you, Ms. Kamashima. I will go to the shrine with Jinguji and Jinguji, and then get some of their plaster back. If you go to the office, you can sell it? "

Ms. Kashima nodded: "Yes, the agency will sell it."

Kazuma: "Okay, let's go, let's go, just leave the medicine box or something, Ms. Kashima should have someone take it back to your room."

"I will." Ms. Kashima readily agreed.

Tamamo put the medicine box and the bath items in front of Ms. Kashima, and asked, "The office...is it the family of the gods running it?"

"The wife of the God Lord passed away a few years ago. Since then, the Lord God has rarely appeared at the social office to entertain guests. Now, it is usually a working girl who is responsible for selling things."

Kazuma: "Does the Lord of God have no son or daughter?"

"I have a son who will not come back after he goes to Tokyo to study at university." Ms. Kashima smiled bitterly, "This kind of place, even if it is modernized rapidly with the help of high-ranking officials from the local area, young people are not willing to come back again. ."

He Ma sharply captured the key information: "This hot spring street has a senior official? Is it a member of Congress?"

"It's not a member of Congress, but a deputy minister of the Ministry of Transport, so this is where tourism is developed."

On the Japanese side, tourism is under the control of the Ministry of Transport, and the Ministry of Transport will issue the "National Land Tourism White Paper" every once in a while.

With a high-ranking official serving as the deputy minister of the Ministry of Transport, it is no wonder that such a modern hot spring town has been built in this remote rural area.

In Japan, due to geographical reasons, there are quite a few places with hot springs. Not every hot spring town can get national-level tourism development. There are many hot springs that no one cares about in the deep mountains of Japan.

Ms. Kamashima's words made Kazuma and Ma Xinsheng puzzled: "You said that the tourism development here started after a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Transport was hired. What happened to Akutagawa Ryunosuke?"

"If we were a tourist attraction back then, and people came and went, do you think Akutagawa-san would still come here to write books?" Ms. Kashima asked.

After thinking about it with Ma, I think it makes some sense. However, he still felt that Akutagawa Ryunosuke had never been here at all, and it was more likely that the anecdotes were deliberately created to put gold on his face.

After all, I have seen a lot of so-called old-fashioned bragging in my life.

However, there is no basis for this, so Hema temporarily pressed the guess in his mind, and then he noticed another thing: "The girl who works at the shrine is a local, right? It seems that it is not every All young people go to Tokyo."

Ms. Kashima smiled slightly: "Hiroko is still young, she is still studying in a high school in a nearby town, and she goes to the shrine to help in the summer vacation. When she graduates from high school, she will probably go to Tokyo too.

"More than one person saw Hiroshi chatting with the tourists from Tokyo very speculatively. When the town meeting in the hot spring town was held, we aunts all said that Hiroshi eloped with the tourists from Tokyo. It is not surprising. ."

Kazuma nodded, and then noticed Mikako's eyes: "Why are you looking at me?"

Mikako shrugged, turned her head and asked Ms. Kashima: "This Boko, does she look good?"

"In general, I can't compare with Miss Fujii." Ms. Kashima replied, with an inexplicable smile on her face.

Mikako glanced at Kazuma: "Are you disappointed with Kazuma?"

"No." He Ma told the truth, "Actually, because the average appearance of female apprentices is too high, I have no feelings for beauties. Mikako, you should take good care of your injuries, and I will go back with Danzizi. ."

"Walk slowly~" Mikako waved to the two of them and watched them leave the lobby.

As soon as the two of them walked away, Ms. Kamashima asked, "You guys, didn't you throw garbage on the mountain? For example, some rubber products."

Mikako didn't understand why Ms. Kamashima suddenly said this, but she replied, "No. We didn't bring that thing at all."

"Eh... well, Ms. Fujii should be careful. The cycle of young girls is not stable, and it is quite common to win the bid on days when there is no problem."

Only then did Mikako know that Ms. Kashima was driving, and her face turned red: "No, no, no! We don't do that!"

"Isn't it? It's a bit of a surprise. Usually, the guests who come to us are a man and a woman who go up the mountain, and they always do something. For this reason, I also specially set up a basket for throwing garbage on the mountain road and tied it to the tree beside the mountain road. on."

Mikako: "It turns out that those baskets are for this purpose. I thought they were nests for birds. I wondered why they were placed in such a low place..."

Ms. Kashima smiled and said, "Ms. Fujii is more innocent than I thought, which is great. Is it possible that you can still approach the unicorn without being kicked?"

Mikako: "Huh? Unicorn? What the hell?"

Ms. Kashima smiled and said nothing.

**

The moment he left the hotel with Ma, he actually wanted to back off.

Before three o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun was at its hottest, the central air conditioner of the hotel turned on violently.

The heat has caused Kazuma to reconsider the need to visit the shrine now.

Maybe it's okay to go tomorrow morning when it's cooler?

The croaking cicadas seemed to be answering Hema's question.

At this time, Yuzao said: "Theoretically, I should know all the masters with names and surnames around here."

"You're not pretending? You just left the hotel."

"If you hear it, it will be considered to be something in a fantasy story." Tamamo waved his hand, "I have a lot of experience in this kind of thing."

Shrugs with the horse.

"It has been passed down here for hundreds of years, but I don't know. It is possible that the original master has left or died, leaving a shrine behind, and human beings are still worshipping according to the handed down rules."

"As you said, we don't need to be anxious about the past today." He Ma subconsciously led the topic in the direction of "going home".

Yuzao shook his head: "This is the best situation. It's also possible that after the Lord's death, something else will come to occupy the magpie's nest. Anyway, there's no harm in going to see it, maybe you can chat with an old acquaintance. "

"A chat between two old women?"

"The opposite may also be an old grandpa."

"Don't you deny that you are an old woman?"

He teased with Ma, but Tamamo just looked at him with a smile.

"Okay, you're eighteen." He Ma shrugged.

The two of them were walking down the mountain along the road at this time--I didn't realize how long the road was when I took the car just now, but now I found out that Hina Tianzhuang is quite far from the hot spring town.

This kind of "mansion" hanging alone outside the town always gives people the feeling that serial killings will happen.

If something really happened, Kazuma's notoriety would probably bring him closer to the primary school student of death in his previous life.

After walking for a while, and Ma could not stand the heat, they said to Tamamo: "Can't you do a spell or something, let's cool down?"

"Generally speaking to girls, 'Come and bring down the fire for me' means something else, right?" Yuzao teased.

"You know a lot."

"After all, she used to be Mama-san."

"Is that setting still there? I thought the joke was over when Mito Huangmen appeared." Kazuma countered.

Tamamo raised her eyebrows: "I really used to be a mother."

"What about Mito Huangmen? Don't try to laugh at it, tell me the truth, have you ever seen the real Mito Huangmen?"

Tamamo was unmoved, just laughed.

There is no other way for Kazuma, but to give up.

At this time, Tamamo suddenly said: "The real Mito Huangmen is completely different from the legend. He is actually introverted and a little neurotic. The folklore has beautified his image, and plays such as Jingliuli are still in play. On this basis, we can further beautify it, and we have the now well-known Mito Yellow Gate."

Kazuma: "You have seen it."

"That's right. But when I met him, he hadn't made up his mind to travel around the Japanese archipelago, and the prototypes of those popular stories had not even happened yet. In addition, the news was blocked at that time, even with my strength at the time, I could only Mastering the information in Edo Castle, it often takes a long time for the news to reach me after leaving Edo."

He said to Ma, "So, you mean that when you meet Mito Huangmen again, he is already a famous legend?"

Tamamo spreads out both hands.

While chatting, the two finally descended to the foot of the mountain.

Three middle-aged men wearing the "Hot Spring Street Tourism Promotion Association" armbands are planting flags by the roadside.

The flag says Schönbrunn Festival, which seems to be the name of the festival that will be held in this place.

Honestly, the name Schönbrunn Matsuri sounds like the idea of ​​a tourism bureaucrat.

Because it is a hot spring town, the festival is naturally titled "beautiful hot spring", which is too simple and crude.

When Hema complained about the name of the festival, the three middle-aged uncles saw Hema and Yuzao.

One of the uncles greeted him enthusiastically: "Are you the guests who live in the Young Grange in the middle of the mountain? Is it the staff of Sonny Music, or is it a famous artist they invited?"

Kazuma: "I don't know if it is a famous artist, but I am indeed a musician invited by Sonny Music."

Actually, it's Duke Wen, but He Ma brazenly boasted that he was a musician.

No one can debunk him anyway.

Uncle immediately extended his hand enthusiastically: "Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you. You should write more songs that reflect the customs and customs of our place. The album cover should use our landscape photos, village. There are a lot of them in the office."

He Ma glanced at Uncle's armband: "Aren't you from the Tourism Promotion Association?"

"Yes, but I usually work in the village office. This village is very small, and many people have multiple jobs. When the tourist season arrives, I am so busy that I want to borrow the hands of all the cats in the town."

Trying to borrow a cat's hand is a Japanese saying to describe a state of being overwhelmed with work.

And the uncle is obviously a little busier, and has to borrow the hands of all the cats in the town.

Kazuma: "It seems that the business is good, there is no need to ask me to promote it."

"The peak season is really good, but the peak season is only a few days a year. We hope that there will be more tourists in the non-peak season. In this situation, if the business is not open during the peak season, the income of the whole year will be reduced. It's all over."

The uncle scratched his head and added: "After all, more than half of the people in this hot spring town are over fifty years old. It is a place full of old men and women."

Kazuma: "Aren't there any young children?"

"No. Look at this hot spring town, it looks like there is a primary school and a middle school. Children in the village have to walk a long way to the town to go to school, so many couples of childbearing age simply moved out. "

Kazuma thought of Hiroko who worked at the shrine~IndoMTL.com~ and asked, "Isn't there a girl like Hiroko?"

"At Bozi's house, there are only her and her grandfather. Her father went out to Tokyo, and then there is no news. Only occasionally anonymous remittances come back. So Bozi can't leave."

As soon as the uncle finished speaking, another uncle behind him made a dissatisfied voice: "When those women are biting their ears, it's not surprising that Bozi ran away with the little white face from Tokyo at any time, huh! Bo Zicai Not leaving her grandma."

The third uncle joined the conversation at this time: "But, Bo Zi's grandma has been bedridden for more than a month? I'm afraid it will be this winter..."

The uncle who first talked to He Ma made a loud voice: "Hey! Hey! What are you talking about! When the old man is still alive, wouldn't you wish her a long life?"

The uncle who just slipped out said "I'm sorry", bowed his head and continued to work.

"You keep busy with your work," Hema said to the three of them, "Let's go to the shrine to see."

"Oh, walk slowly! By the way, the shrine's Bida ointment is very effective, and the tourists who come to us every year are full of praise."

————

He Ma nodded his thanks, and said goodbye to the three uncles with Tamamo, and walked along the main road of Hot Spring Street towards the shrine.

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