Sakuya: No, not necessarily. But to assume that I’m coming to report, that must mean something is happening, right?
Hostess: Oh my, you haven’t heard about it? There’s a festival occurring in three days, you know. And this year is special, in particular.
Kei: Special, you say?
Hostess: There was a household in town that was taking charge of festival duties in the past, but those people disappeared a long time ago, you see…
Hostess: And so, since then we have continued holding the event, but for little more than habit’s sake.
Hostess: I think it’s just superstition, but this place has ever been in decline since it happened……
Kei: Huh… so it’s because they couldn’t hold a proper ceremonial festival?
Hostess: It’s just a superstition. But when you run a business, you want to have some manner of symbol, right?
As she mills about while speaking, the hostess flips through the pages of her hotel register *para para* and breathes a short sigh.
Hostess: Asama-san, could I have your signature here, please?
Opened to that page, she hands the register to Sakuya-san along with a calligraphy pen.
Kei: In that case, what is it that makes this year special?
Hostess: Well, I can hardly believe it, but a person connected to that family, and deeply knowledgeable about the festival, came to us. She’s so young, but she really has a good head on her shoulders.
Sakuya: ……Geh!
Sakuya-san leaks out a noise like a flattened frog.
Hostess: Oh dear, whatever is the matter?
Sakuya: Oh, no, nothing at all! Is this good enough?
Hostess: Let’s see…… yes, yes, this is fine. Now, Asama-san, your room can be found…
I was wondering if she gripped the pen too tight and leaked ink drops all over the register— but it seems that fear was unfounded.
Regardless, Sakuya-san was making one amazing face just then… I wonder if it’s really all right to think nothing happened?
…………
At any rate, I decide to pretend I didn’t notice.
Kei: In that case, what kind of festival is it?
Hostess: Yes, about that… I know little beyond the event being in reverence to a god called the Ohashirasama.
Kei: Ohashirasama?
Hostess: Could it be the “hashira” from “daikokubashira,” perhaps? (TN: Daikokubashira – mainstay. The character she gives to guess the meaning, “hashira,” means “pillar.” But “hashira” has a special meaning in Japanese. It’s used as a counter for Shintou gods, so it’s a natural guess on her part, since the Ohashirasama is a Shintou god.)
After saying she wasn’t very knowledgeable about it, the Hostess-san doesn’t look very confident with her guess.
Hostess: You see things like the <a “href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OnbashiraOnbashira”” target=”-blank”>Onbashira Matsuri at the Suwa Grand Shrine on television and the news, but, perhaps customers would come next year if we had a festival like that?
Kei: Huh……
Even with a festival happening in three days, the air in town is still so carefree, so I doubt they can manage the kind of uprush you see for the Onbashira Matsuri or the Nebuta Matsuri.
Hostess: Right, right, as for the Ohashirasama, in the mountains of the Hazama area, I heard there is a sacred tree.
Kei: Hah…
Hostess: It’s a type of tree called Enju that you often find on roadsides, but as a sacred tree, I heard it’s amazingly large. More than twelve-hundred years old, they say. (TN: Pictures of Enju here and here.)
Kei: Ha~h…
Kei: …choo!
As if those pillowy “ha~h”s acted as the primer, an exceedingly classical sneeze flies out.
Hostess: Oh my, I’m so sorry. After all that, you two should be changing clothes, and yet here I am keeping you with these stories of mine.
Kei: Ah, it’s okay, it’s okay.
I’ll bet it’s Youko-chan telling stories about me, no doubt. I told her I was staying here, after all.
But the food at this hotel is so delicious……
Hostess: ……Hatou-san?
Kei: Well then, Okami-san, I’m hoping for another delicious dinner tonight.
Just as things come as they go, that sudden evening summer shower was no exception.
The thumping sounds of the rain on the roof soon changed into an uninspired applause, and faded completely, before long.