He Ma pondered over his vocabulary before asking Jinguji: "Aren't your family familiar with sacrifices and tributes? What kind of tribute should you prepare to worship this shrine in the hot spring street?"
Tamamo smiled and said, "I'm not familiar with all the shrines. After all, people's memory has a limit. There are so many shrines in Japan, and there are always some that I don't know. To be on the safe side, it's definitely right to prepare offering money."
He Ma: "It's so vulgar to talk about money..."
"Although the shrine enshrines gods, it is ultimately run by people. Giving money helps the operation of the shrine, and the enshrined existence will also give some face."
As soon as Yuzao finished speaking, Mikako complained: "Suddenly I feel that the gods have a market atmosphere! Then if the shrine can't continue to operate if no one pays homage, will the gods come out to work and subsidize the shrine?"
Ms. Kamashima seemed to be amused by Mikako's whimsy, so she suppressed a smile.
But Tamamo said seriously: "No. Even if there is no one to enshrine the shrine, the gods will also perish, leaving only ruins without blessings."
He Ma frowned slightly: "People's beliefs are actually the cornerstone for the existence of gods? Then in modern society, as humans believe in other things, will new gods be born? For example, will money worship give birth to new gods?" God?"
Yuzao 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 of your point of view."
What she wanted to say was "I have never seen a new god born before", but she changed her words temporarily considering that Mikako and Ms. Kamashima were also present.
If people's beliefs can really give birth to new gods, then I am afraid that a new god named Mr. Sai has already been born.
Kazuma glanced at Ms. Pushima, who had already started to feel that the content of the chat was a bit strange, so he changed the subject: "What time does the shrine open?"
"Theoretically, you can visit the shrine 24 hours a day." Ms. Pushima smiled, "But if you want to sign or buy amulets, or write ema, you have to wait for the shrine office to open, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm every day. .”
Kazuma glanced at the watch in the lobby, it was not yet three o'clock in the afternoon, and he still had time to cross the hot spring street to see the shrine.
"Then Mikako will be handed over to you, Ms. Kamashima. Danko and Jinguji will go to the shrine to have a look, and then get some of their plaster. If you go to the shrine office, you can sell it?"
Ms. Pu Dao nodded: "That's right, the social office sells them."
He Ma: "Okay, egg, let's go, just leave the medicine box and so on. Ms. Pu Island should let someone take it back to your room."
"I will." Ms. Kashima readily agreed.
Tamamo put the medicine kit and bathing things in front of Ms. Kamashima, and asked at the same time: "The agency office... is the Shenzhu family running it?"
"The god's wife passed away a few years ago. Since then, the god has seldom appeared in the social office to entertain guests. Nowadays, the girls who are in charge of selling things are usually working girls."
He Ma: "Does God have no sons or daughters?"
"I have a son who won't come back after he went to Tokyo to study in university." Ms. Pushima smiled wryly. "Even if this kind of place is modernized rapidly under the influence of high-ranking officials from the local area, young people are unwilling to come back."
He Ma keenly captured the key information: "This hot spring street, there are also high-ranking officials? Members of Congress?"
"It's not a member of Congress, but the Deputy Minister of Transport, that's why tourism development is here."
In Japan, tourism is under the management of the Ministry of Transport, and the Ministry of Transport will release the "White Paper on Land and Tourism" every once in a while.
There is a high-ranking official who is the deputy minister of the Ministry of Transport. No wonder this remote village has been built into such a modern hot spring street.
Because of geography, there are quite a lot of places with hot springs in Japan. Not every hot spring street can get national-level tourism development. There are many hot springs in the deep mountains of Japan that no one cares about.
Ms. Pushima's words made Hema doubtful: "You said that the tourism development here started after a person who became a senior official of the Ministry of Transport, so what happened to Ryunosuke Akutagawa?"
"If our place was a tourist attraction back then, with people coming and going, do you think Akutagawa-san would come here to write a book?" Ms. Kamashima asked back.
After thinking about it with the horse, I think it makes sense. However, he still felt that Akutagawa Ryunosuke had never been here at all, and it was more likely that it was an anecdote deliberately created here to put money on his face.
After all, He Ma has seen a lot of bragging of so-called time-honored brands in his life.
However, there was no basis for this, so Kazuma temporarily suppressed the guess in his mind. At this time, he noticed another thing: "The girl who works at the shrine is a local, right? It doesn't look like every young person Let's go to Tokyo."
Ms. Pushima smiled slightly: "Hiroko is still young, she is still studying in a high school in a nearby town, and she will go to the shrine to help during the summer vacation. When she graduates from high school, she will probably go to Tokyo as well.
"More than one person saw Hiroko chatting speculatively with tourists from Tokyo. When the town meeting in the hot spring town was held, we aunts said that it is not surprising that Hiroko elopes with people from Tokyo."
Hema nodded, and then noticed Mikako's gaze: "What are you looking at me for?"
Mikako shrugged, turned her head and asked Ms. Pushima: "This Hiroko, is she good-looking?"
"Generally, it's not comparable to Ms. Fujii." Ms. Pushima replied, with an inexplicable smile on her face.
Mikako glanced at Kazuma: "Aren't you disappointed with Kazuma?"
"No." Hema told the truth, "Actually, because the average appearance of female apprentices is too high, I have no feeling for beautiful women. Mikako, you can take care of your wounds, and I will go back with Danzi."
"Walk slowly~" Mikako waved to the two and watched them leave the lobby.
As soon as the two left, Ms. Pushima asked on the back: "You guys, didn't you throw your rubbish 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 with us at all."
"Hey... so, 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 realize that Ms. Pushima was driving, and her face turned red: "No, no, no! We didn't do that kind of thing!"
"No? It's a bit of a surprise. Generally, the guests who come to our place are a man and a woman going up the mountain, and they always have to do something. For this reason, I specially set up a trash basket on the mountain path and tied it to a tree next to the mountain path."
Mikako: "So 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. Pushima smiled and said, "Miss Fujii is more innocent than I imagined, that's great. Is it possible that you can still get close to the unicorn without getting kicked?"
Mikako: "Huh? Unicorn? What the hell?"
Ms. Pushima smiled without saying a word.
**
The moment He Ma left the hotel, he actually wanted to retreat.
Before three o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun was at its hottest, the hotel's central air-conditioning was turned on fiercely, and the heat wave coming out of the hotel was really suffocating.
The heat wave made Kazuma re-examine the need to visit the shrine now.
Maybe it's okay to go tomorrow morning when it's cooler
The croaking cicadas seem to be answering He Ma's questions.
At this time, Yuzao said: "In theory, I should know all the masters with names and surnames around here."
"You're not pretending now? You just left the hotel."
"If you are heard, it will be regarded as telling something in a fantasy story." Yuzao waved his hand, "I have a lot of experience in this kind of thing."
and horse shrug.
"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 behind a shrine, and humans are still offering sacrifices according to the handed down rules."
"According to what you said, there's no need for us to rush over today." He Ma subconsciously steered the topic towards "going home".
Yuzao shook her head: "This is the best situation. It is also possible that something else will come to occupy the magpie's nest after the death of the main lord. In short, there is no harm in going to see, maybe you can chat with old acquaintances."
"A chat between two old women?"
"The other side may also be a grandfather."
"Don't you deny that you are an old woman?"
Kazuma teased, but Yuzao just looked at him with a smile.
"Well, you are eighteen years old." He Ma shrugged.
The two of them were walking down the mountain along the road at this time - when they took this road by car just now, they didn't realize how long the road was, but now they walked by themselves and realized that Hinata Village is quite far from the hot spring street.
This kind of "mansion" hanging out of the small town always gives people the feeling that serial killings will happen.
If something really happened, He Ma's notoriety would probably be closer to that elementary school student who was the god of death in his previous life.
After walking for a while, he and Ma couldn't bear the heat anymore, so he said to Yuzao, "Can't you do a spell or something, let the wind cool down?"
"Usually when you tell a girl 'Come and fire me', it means something else?" Tamamo teased.
"You know so much."
"After all, she used to be Mama-san."
"That setting is still there? I thought the joke would be over when Mito Komon appeared." Kazuma countered.
Yuzao raised her eyebrows: "I really was a mother-san."
"What about the Mito Yellow Gate? Don't try to prevaricate it with a smile, tell me the truth, have you ever seen the real Mito Yellow Gate?"
Yuzao was unmoved, just laughed.
He Ma has no choice but to give up.
At this time, Yuzao suddenly said: "The real Mito Komon is completely different from the legend. He is actually reserved and a bit nervous. Folklore has beautified his image, and plays such as Joruri are based on this. With further beautification, the Mito Yellow Gate is now known to everyone."
He Ma: "As expected, you have seen it."
"Probably. 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 hadn't even happened. In addition, the news was blocked at that time. Even with my strength at that time, I could only grasp Edo. It takes a long time for the information in the city to reach me after leaving Edo.”
Interfacing with Ma: "So, you mean that when you saw Mito Konmon again, he was already a famous legend?"
Yuzao spread her hands.
While chatting, the two finally reached the foot of the mountain.
Three middle-aged men wearing armbands of the "Hot Spring Street Tourism Promotion Association" were planting flags by the side of the road.
The flag says Meiquan Festival. It seems that this is the name of the festival that will be held in this place.
To be honest, the name Schönbrunn Festival sounds like something a bureaucrat in charge of tourism came up with.
Because it is a hot spring town, the festival is given the title of "beautiful hot spring" as a matter of course, which is too simple and rude.
When Hema complained about the name of the festival, the three middle-aged uncles saw Hema and Yuzao.
One of the uncles warmly greeted him: "Are you the guests who live in the Young Farm on the mountainside? Are you the staff of Soni Music, or are they invited famous artists?"
He Ma: "I don't know if I'm a famous artist or not, but I'm indeed a musician invited by Sony Music."
In fact, he is Wen Chaogong, but He Ma brazenly boasts that he is a musician.
Anyway, no one can expose him.
The uncle immediately stretched out his hand enthusiastically: "Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you. You should write more songs that can reflect the customs and customs of our place. Or use the scenery photos of our side for the cover of the album. The village office There are many."
Hema glanced at the 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 peak tourist season comes, I'm so busy that I want to borrow the hands of all the cats in the town."
Wanting to borrow the cat's hands is a Japanese proverb to describe a state of being overwhelmed by being too busy.
And the uncle is obviously busier, and wants to borrow the hands of all the cats in the town.
He Ma: "It seems that the business is good. There is no need to ask me to promote it."
"The peak season is really good, but there are only a few days in the peak season a year. We hope that there will be more tourists in the off-peak season. In this situation, if you get sick during the peak season and fail to open for business, the income for the whole year will be ruined." gone."
The uncle scratched his head as he spoke, and added: "After all, more than half of the people in this hot spring street are over fifty years old, and it's a place full of old men and women."
He Ma: "Aren't there any young children?"
"No. Look at this hot spring street. It looks like there are elementary and middle schools. 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 away."
At this time, Kazuma thought of Hiroko who was working at the shrine, and asked, "Aren't there girls like Hiroko?"
"Bozi's family is just her and her grandfather. Her father went to Tokyo, and then he didn't hear from her. It's just that there are occasional anonymous remittances. So Bozi can't leave."
As soon as the uncle finished speaking, another uncle behind him made a dissatisfied voice: "When those women bit their ears, they said that it would not be strange for Bozi to run away with the little boy from Tokyo at any time, hum! Get off her grandma."
The third uncle joined the conversation at this time: "But, Hiroko's grandma has been bedridden for more than a month, right? I'm afraid this winter should..."
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 his tongue said "I'm sorry", bowed his head and continued to work.
"Go ahead with your work," Kazuma said to the three, "let's go to the shrine."
"Oh, walk slowly! By the way, the wounded ointment from the shrine is very effective, and the tourists who come to our place every year are full of praise."
He Ma nodded his thanks, said goodbye to the three uncles with Yuzao, and walked along the main road of the hot spring street towards the shrine.