Miss Heir wasn't very kind to me.

Chapter 110 7. "Going to Kyoto! (2)"

After leaving Kyoto Station, the group went to the hotel they had booked. Although they could not check in until after 3 pm, they could leave their luggage there first.

Masumi booked a hot spring hotel with a private bath. It was the peak tourist season and there were an unusually large number of tourists in Kyoto. Although he himself didn't particularly care, both Kaizuki and Kurokawa Mio didn't like crowded public baths.

After all, we are traveling, and experience is more important.

The rooms were very limited when we made the reservation, but fortunately we were able to book two rooms: five girls shared a spacious Japanese-style room, and he had a Western-style room.

But something unexpected happened during registration.

"Is there only a Japanese-style room?" Masumi frowned.

"I'm truly sorry, guests," the innkeeper said, bowing repeatedly. "Because we made the reservations by phone, and there have been a lot of tourists lately, the staff made a mistake during check-in, and the Western-style rooms are now fully booked."

"I'm so sorry to have caused you so much trouble."

"No need for an apology," Masumi said calmly, "I'd rather hear about solutions than unchangeable facts."

He does not expect things that have already happened to change. When a problem occurs, the first thing he thinks about is how to solve it.

"Of course. We will waive part of the room fee, and we will also make up for it with the dinner dishes."

"If it's just the room..." He looked embarrassed.

Masumi then asked, "Is there no small room for one or two people?"

In response, the boss simply bowed and apologized like politicians and corporate spokespeople on TV.

It seems there is no way.

Masumi sighed. Although the Tottori Sand Dunes, the only desert in the island nation, were small, ostriches were everywhere.

"What should we do, Masumi-san?" Qian Ai asked him, "Should we find another hotel?"

"It must be hard to find in Kyoto now." Asami shrugged.

"Ordinary hotels should be fine, but luxury hotels with open-air private baths usually need to be booked in advance."

Masumi explained, then turned to the girls and asked, "How about you guys stay here and I'll find another room nearby."

This hotel is not far from Sanjo, with convenient transportation and sightseeing. It should not be difficult to find a room for one person nearby.

"How can this be possible!" Qian Ai refused without a second thought, "Since we are traveling together, living separately is not a big deal. It will also be inconvenient to move around."

"I can move out with Masumi."

Soft golden hair flashed before her eyes. Kurokawa Mio tilted her head and leaned her weight on Masumi's right shoulder. The scent of shampoo wafted over.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything."

She said this as if she was trying to cover up her guilt.

"Even if you didn't say that, I would still have doubts." Masumi sighed.

"No, no!" Qian Ai protested, "We're a complete group trip with five women and one man!"

Honestly, describing it like this doesn't sound wholesome at all, which is terrible.

"How about we change hotels together?"

Masumi shook his head. "This hotel is in a very convenient location. I finally managed to book it. It would be a shame to give up like this."

Kyoto's tram coverage is not as wide as Osaka's. Travel mainly relies on public buses in the city, and the schedule is also uncontrollable. It is better to live not far from the station.

"Hey, I have an idea."

Asami slowly raised the corners of her lips, and before speaking, she glanced at Rin, who had remained silent.

"What do you think, Rinne-chan?"

"..."

Linyin nodded slightly: "Considering the situation, this is the only way."

"Oh? Really?" Asami was surprised and pleased by her reaction. Her gaze skipped over Haiyue and fixed on Kurokawa Mio: "Where's Ms. Mio?"

"As long as I can be with Masumi, I have no problem with that."

Finally, there is Qian Ai who is still confused.

Puzzled eyes flickered in his emerald eyes. After scanning the three girls' faces several times, he finally realized something and opened his mouth wide in surprise.

"Eh?"

◇

Like most tourists, the first stop of the six-person trip was Kiyomizu-dera Temple.

"The pine wind blows through the waterfall, the clear water washes away the pent-up heart, and perhaps it can finally calm it down."

Kiyomizu-dera Temple, founded in 798 AD, is the oldest temple in Kyoto. It was founded by Master Ci'en, the first disciple of the great Tang monk Xuanzang in Japan.

The existing Kiyomizu-dera Temple was rebuilt in 1633 with funds donated by Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun of the Edo shogunate.

"..."

Masumi glanced at the introduction to the tourist attraction, closed the travel brochure in his hand, and looked at the crowd in front of him.

The number of tourists in front of Nioumon Gate is ridiculous. The entrance is already so crowded, so I guess it will be even more crowded inside.

Apart from coffee shops, live houses, and every musician's dream of going to the martial arts hall, Masumi can't handle any crowded occasions.

This is exactly the case in Kyoto during the Obon Festival. No matter where you go, you can only see a sea of ​​people. Often, you will be exhausted before you have time to enjoy anything.

But he was also not the type to show a disappointed expression during a group trip, so he hid his impatience and walked towards the girls who were already posing for photos not far away.

"Come on, Masumi-san, you're the only one missing." Qian Ai called out to him.

"Look here!"

She held the selfie stick and pressed the shutter twice.

"Not bad, we took some great photos." Qian Aixin nodded slightly with satisfaction, then asked a few people, "Can we upload it to SNS? Okay, I'll edit it and upload it."

"It was the same thing yesterday. I was so exhausted when I got back to the hotel. Thinking about taking the train to Kyoto the next day, I went to bed early and didn't even have time to post it."

Asami: "Hey, are all my friends on SNS who are just real people? No, no! They're too dazzling!"

Rin: "Sorry, I don't want to show my face on the Internet except for the official photos in the cafe."

Kurokawa Mio: "Apart from the band's promotional photos, I'm not used to uploading selfies."

Haiyue: "If no one wants it... I can't do it either..."

"Are you all doomed to fail in the spotlight on the Internet?" Qian Ai complained with a bored look on her face.

"Where's Masumi-san?"

"I don't care." Masumi nodded indifferently.

"Great!" A smile suddenly broke out on her face: "Then let's take a photo together!"

"Ah."

"Wait a minute! I want to choose a more suitable place for the two of us to take a photo."

The group walked up the stone steps through Niomon Gate, and what came into view was a vermilion three-story pagoda, rising from the ground and standing silently on Otowa Mountain, guarding Kyoto for thousands of years... Considering that it was rebuilt, the word "Thousand" can be removed.

"This place seems nice." Qian Ai looked around, a smile blooming quietly in her emerald eyes: "Brother Masumi, come over here."

"coming."

The energetic childhood girl walking in front was like a puppy released into the wilderness, running wildly and making it difficult for people to keep up with her.

click-

Qian Ai naturally hooked his arm, adjusted the angle, and pressed the shutter.

"Are you satisfied this time?" Masumi asked.

"……Um."

She nodded, and her cheerful expression suddenly became visibly restrained. Her light bangs cast a shadow on her face, and her voice became sticky.
"Just two people, it looks like a couple's photo..."

Her fair cheeks turned as red as a cooked octopus.

"It's better not to post it on social media..."

Masumi was helpless: "It's up to you."

"Love, couple!" Kurokawa Mio's ears caught the key words, and she came over with a sweet smile on her face: "Masumi, let's take a picture together."

"Then...I want one too..."

Kurokawa looked unhappy: "Haiyue, wait until I finish filming."

"It doesn't matter... you're on the left... I'm on the right..."

“This isn’t a left-right issue.”

"So hard to please... Then you stay in the middle..."

"Come here!"

"Don't...well..."

Masumi watched the two people tugged at each other. It was rare to see Kurokawa with such a difficult expression.

Before in Tokyo, she always kept to herself, and was even more withdrawn than when she first met Kamishiro.

"Hey." Mami watched the fun and said, "Then take me with you too."

"Rinne-chan, aren't you coming with us?"

"Wouldn't this just be another group photo?" She sighed and said softly.

Having said that, he still walked over.

The knot that was originally tied between Kurokawa Mio's brows suddenly broke like a bowstring carrying the peak of emotions, turning into a helpless expression as if she was defeated.

"Sister Qianai, let's take pictures together." She said in self-abandonment.

"Eh, me?"

Pulling Qian Ai, whose face was still blushing, the six of them took a group photo with the three-story pagoda in the frame, and then slowly headed towards the entrance to the shrine.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to walk fast, but there are too many tourists coming to worship. Masumi looked at the white backpackers standing in front of him. Does the Thousand-Armed Guanyin have believers in Europe?
Then he saw that the white backpacker closed his eyes and completed the "two bows, two claps, and one bow" worship ceremony with a very serious expression.

(Note: This is a Shinto worship ritual. Kiyomizu-dera Temple is a Buddhist temple of the Hosso sect.)
After the visit, the six people took turns to draw lots. They had heard that it was easy to draw bad luck at Kiyomizu-dera Temple, but fortunately, everyone drew good luck.

Asami seemed a little disappointed: "It went so smoothly without any surprises at all."

"Can I write ema?"

"Sister Mami, Kiyomizu-dera is a Buddhist temple."

"But I saw some people writing ema on social media."

"That's the Jishujinja Shrine, right?"

We walked through the main hall while chatting casually, and then walked forward to the national treasure of the island country: the Kiyomizu Stage.

"The stage is 13 meters high and supported by 138 wooden piles, built on a steep cliff. The piles are made of beech trees over 400 years old, arranged in a grid and connected using mortise and tenon joints learned from the Tang Dynasty. They protrude from the main hall toward the cliff."

There is a proverb in the island nation: "Jump off the Qingshui stage", which is a metaphor for a person's determination to never look back.

Masumi stood in front of the railing, from where he could see half of Kyoto's street scene.

The travel guide says that if the weather is good enough, even Osaka can be seen. Masumi thinks that this requires not only good weather but also good eyesight.

"Sister Mami, please move a little further."

Chiai tugged at Mami's arm, but the latter stayed where she was, shaking her head like a toy cow from Aizu.

"No, no, this is too high. What if it collapses suddenly?"

"Pah! It won't collapse. It's been standing for hundreds of years."

"After a few hundred years, wouldn't that be a dilapidated building? Kobe is still better, as most of the city has been rebuilt."

This seems a bit subtle, Masumi thought.

However, compared with Kobe, a brand new city with almost no historical traces, this thousand-year-old capital still retains many of the charms that date back to the Nara period, giving people an incredible charm, or a sense of security.

Yes, it is true that having some things around you that never change can make people feel at ease.

But time is like the water of the Kamogawa River, where everything flows and nothing remains forever. If we want to maintain this unchanging state, humans themselves must make changes.

Stagnation itself is a form of backwardness, just like myself now.

“The scenery here is so beautiful.”

Kurokawa Mio leaned on the railing, exclaimed in admiration, and looked at him with a smile as he was lost in thought.

Even though her vision was obscured by the dark crowd, the impressive scenery inside Kiyomizu-dera Temple still stood out, but her eyes were firmly fixed on Masumi.

"What are you thinking about? You're looking so intently."

"Nothing." Masumi shook his head gently. "The travel brochure said that the scenery would be more charming if you come during the maple leaf season or the cherry blossom season."

Enjoy the view of the mountains and Kyoto dyed red by maple leaves, or the Kiyomizu-zaka surrounded by cherry blossoms in the warm spring sunshine. The vermilion buildings are like the halos of deep and shallow sediments in the heart of the pistil, bright red and charming.

“Really? But there will be more people.”

As she spoke, she glanced back at a new wave of tourists pouring in from the main hall, her brows slightly furrowed.

"Actually, I hate crowded places the most."

"It was like that at Kiyomizu-dera Temple, yesterday at Universal Studios, and on other occasions as well."

"If you could go to the Budokan, would you still find it annoying?" Masumi joked.

"Ah."

Kurokawa Mio nodded slightly.

"Eh?"

Masumi was a little surprised to hear the unexpected answer.

"Mio."

Suddenly, a voice came from behind. Masumi turned his head to the right and saw Rin coming over: "It's almost time to go to the next attraction."

"Oh, got it."

After Kurokawa Mio finished speaking, she yawned lazily.

The few drops of tears squeezed out from the bottom of her eyes, slid down her fair cheeks with fatigue, and evaporated in the summer heat.

For a moment, Masumi wanted to look at her eyes that were like the dew in the middle of the night.

After leaving the Kiyomizu Stage, the good spots near the railing that Masumi and Kurokawa had just occupied were immediately filled with new tourists. What’s the saying: Tourist attractions abhor a vacuum.

There was originally another popular tourist attraction, the Jishu Jinja Shrine located in Kiyomizu-dera Temple. It is dedicated to the god of matchmaking, who blesses the blossoming of love. It is said to be the most effective shrine for seeking marriage in Kyoto.

But they came at an unfortunate moment, as the shrine was under renovation and would not be open until next year.

Passing by Okunoin, there were a lot of tourists posing for photos in the same pose. Seno said they were tourists visiting the sacred site because of the Conan movie.

Is it worthy of being called Kyoto? Whether it is national-level animation or the school animation of each season, Kyoto is often used as a filming location. Kobe is pitifully rare, and Fuyuki City is one of them.

Going down the stone steps, you will find a path leading to Otowa Falls. The water is clear and the gurgling sound gives people a sweet and mellow feeling. It is known as "spiritual water", which is the origin of the name of Kiyomizu-dera Temple.

They only took a few steps before stopping again, standing at the end of the crowd.

Masumi flipped through the guidebook. "In front of Otowa Falls, in a small altar, there are three springs flowing from them. All three springs come from Otowa Falls, blessing career (school), love, and health, respectively. Visitors can drink the water..."

"Great!"

Before Masumi finished, Asami cheered impatiently, "This is a rare opportunity. I want to drink from all three springs and get the full buff of Guanyin!"

Masumi remained calm and continued to read the rest:

"...But one can only drink from one spring, and only take a sip at a time. If one drinks from all three, or drinks too much, the Bodhisattva will punish that person for their greed and desire."

"Eh--"

Mami pouted in dissatisfaction: "Guan Yin is too stingy, she has so much blessings, why not just give some to humans?"

"Stingy! So stingy!"

"The same thing happened with the main hall just now. There's a Bodhisattva statue there, but it's hidden away. And it's only been on display once every 33 years. Are you kidding me?"

He actually spoke so arrogantly in someone else's place. Masumi and Chiai looked at each other in surprise.

There will definitely be retribution...

(End of this chapter)