428: Chapter 422: Tour Group 428: Chapter 422: Tour Group June 22, 2022, Hokkaido, Great Snow Mountain.
In this season, the temperature here remained around fifteen degrees Celsius.
The snow on the mountain had mostly melted, only the peaks of some high mountains still bore everlasting ice and snow.
A tour bus, following the road, made its way to the mid-mountain of a peak.
This was where the mountain ring road ended.
As soon as the bus came to a halt in the parking lot, a twenty-four or twenty-five-year-old girl, though slightly chubby, yet fairly pretty, was the first to jump down from the bus.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last attraction we are going to visit today.”
“The old architectural complex you see here was built a few centuries ago.”
“Although it has undergone simple renovations since it became a tourist site, it still retains a strong cultural and historical background!”
…
The girl’s name was Kobashi Miku, a professional tour guide.
This time, she was responsible for a group of elders from Yanhuang Country.
In recent years, Yanhuang Country’s economy had grown incredibly fast, having already become the second-largest economy on Blue Star, just after the USA.
As the economy prospered and money was in hand, many citizens of Yanhuang Country found traveling within their vast and beautiful homeland somewhat unsatisfactory!
International travel had become quite fashionable, especially for these elders.
After a lifetime of hard work, upon retirement, with time and money to spare, they naturally wanted to travel abroad to experience different cultures and customs.
Ignoring historical issues, Japan had clearly benefited significantly from the tourism boom in Yanhuang Country.
There were rumors that when these elders visited, the toilet seats produced in Japan could spark a buying frenzy, often selling out because of them.
Waving a small red flag, Kobashi Miku’s face bore a professional smile.
As she beckoned the elders off the bus, she pointed to the ancient buildings ahead and continued, “Have you all heard of the Onmyoji in our Japan?”
“The buildings you see before you are said to have once been the base of a certain Yin-Yang Master Sect.”
“However, due to some unknown reasons, overnight, the people of that sect disappeared without a trace, and this place was completely abandoned.”
“It wasn’t until five or six years ago that the local government re-claimed this mountain peak and this place was developed into a tourist attraction.”
…
Kobashi Miku was eloquent, and as a tour guide, she had a good understanding of the history of the area.
By emphasizing the mysterious cultural heritage of this place, she spoke with a passion that piqued the curiosity of those elders.
“This place once served as a base for the Yin-Yang Master Sect?
Wait, let me take a photo to post on my social network.”
“Zhang, come here, hold my phone for me; I’m going to take a short video for TikTok.”
After hearing Kobashi Miku’s introduction, the first reaction of the female tourists was to grab their cameras and furiously start taking pictures.
Seeing an ancient tree at the entrance to the old buildings, two of the aunties even rolled up their sleeves, climbed directly onto the branches, struck a pose, and began to take selfies.
Seeing this, Kobashi Miku frowned slightly, but after a moment’s thought, she ultimately didn’t say anything as a tour guide!
“Onmyoji?
I watched a movie about them not too long ago!”
“A Yin-Yang Master Sect established on Great Snow Mountain?
No need to tell me; I already know this place must be related to the Snow Woman.”
“That Snow Woman, is she pretty?
I want to bring honor to my country by sleeping with her…”
The reactions of the male tourists in the travel group were quite different from those of the aunties.
A few of the masters murmured among themselves, their faces bearing expressions common to men.
“Ladies and gentlemen, whether Snow Woman or Dog Ghost, you can find them all at the attraction.”
“If you have any thoughts, you can have a photo taken with them, of course, this will certainly require a small fee!”
“If you really want further close contact, that will depend on your own skills!”
Kobashi Miku clearly heard the private conversations of several elders.
After leading everyone into the ancient buildings, she covered her mouth with a smile and pointed at a group of young girls striking poses not far away, jokingly saying to the masters behind her.
Some of the girls were dressed in white, with white hair emulating the Snow Woman.
Some wore dog ears and even clipped a dog tail prop to their skirt, looking not ferocious but rather cute; this was presumably the Dog Ghost look.
Others fashioned nine fox tails behind them, likely representing the Shikigami Tamamonomae.
…
Although these girls had various styles, what they impersonated were all different Shikigami from Japanese legends.
Of course, their impersonations were as pretty as could be, and the poses they struck only bore a slight resemblance to the true Shikigami.
Hearing Kobashi Miku say this, quite a few of the elders behind her rushed forward to take photos with the girls impersonating the Shikigami.
“Everyone, the shops over there also sell various souvenirs—those who are interested may want to have a look!”
Kobashi Miku, smiling warmly, gestured to a few stores not far away as she spoke to the elders that were still by her side.
The tourist attraction’s admission fee wasn’t steep, yet the souvenirs sold in the shops were far from cheap.
As a guide, Kobashi Miku actually had a partnership with those stores.
If her tour group spent money in the shops, she would take a certain commission from the sales as her fee.
Bringing the group here and leading the seniors from Yanhuang Country into the shops to buy souvenirs was an important step she certainly wouldn’t forget.
“Boom…
Boom…”
Just as the seniors were following Kobashi Miku’s suggestion and preparing to look at the souvenirs in the shops, the entire Snow Mountain seemed to tremble several times.
A deafening roar suddenly erupted from the summit of Snow Mountain.
An area not far from the summit seemed to collapse, and from the viewpoint halfway up the mountain, you could clearly see numerous rocks of various sizes tumbling down.
“An earthquake?”
In that instant, the thought occurred to almost everyone simultaneously.
As natives of Japan, they were all too familiar with earthquakes.
After all, their country was situated atop a rather unstable seismic belt.
Although Hokkaido was not directly on this belt, and the likelihood of an earthquake was extremely slim,
It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Not only the tourists who had come here but also the staff of the attraction, including the store owners and the young women dressed as Shikigami,
At that moment, they all ran collectively towards the road outside the attraction.
“Everyone, gather and follow me to the tour bus,”
“This attraction is not suitable for touring today; let’s hurry back to the hotel!”
Kobashi Miku’s face was visibly flustered.
She called out repeatedly to the seniors in her tour group.
Unfortunately, the group she was leading consisted of more than thirty people.
At the moment of upheaval on the mountain, many of those seniors panicked and scrambled in all directions.
Kobashi Miku was shouting herself hoarse, but rounding up all the seniors was no easy feat!
The only consolation was that after a few tremors, the Snow Mountain had no further abnormalities.
The staff who had run out to the open area lingered for a while and then, with a slight sigh of relief, began to head back inside the attraction.
They could return, but the tourists who had come here were in no mood to continue sightseeing, even if it had just been a scare.
The seniors from Yanhuang Country could be quite demanding.
When Kobashi Miku finally gathered them and returned to the tour bus, it was already thirty or forty minutes later.
“Lass, we came here for a good time, but what happened?
Your travel agency brought us here, and not only did we not have fun, but we also had quite a fright.”
“You guys need to provide an explanation for this.”
“Either refund part of our money or arrange some extra attractions as compensation!”
…
On the tour bus, the seniors were talking at once, demanding answers from Kobashi Miku.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I can’t decide on this matter; I need to communicate with my superiors before I can give you a response!”
“Please, could everyone quiet down for a moment so I can do a headcount?”
The bus had already started and was driving down the mountain.
With a professional smile still on her face, Kobashi Miku soothed the seniors on the bus.
“One, two, three, four…”
Counting heads was something that should have been done before the tour bus set off.
However, due to the sudden incident on the mountain, the parking lot was a complete mess.
Before boarding the bus, Kobashi Miku had already done a rough count; now, she was just double-checking the numbers.
“That’s not right; I’m supposed to have thirty-two people in my group, so how come there’s an extra one now?”
Kobashi Miku frowned and muttered to herself.
The bus was still filled with the clamor of discontent seniors, clearly unsatisfied with her explanation.
Despite keeping a smile on her face, Kobashi Miku definitely felt annoyed inside.
Ignoring the protests of the seniors, she counted the heads again.
Excluding herself and the bus driver, there were still thirty-three people—indeed, one extra compared to the number in her group.
“Could it be that some other tourist got on the wrong bus and ended up on ours?”
This thought crossed Kobashi Miku’s mind.
Her gaze swept across everyone on the bus, and soon she fixed her eyes on a young man dressed in a tacky leather jacket.