'I heard a private company bought this island and carried out these festivals, I wonder how much money they must be making from it for them to be going this far. I should tell Hector to look into it. Maybe we should also invest in the next festival.'
The Japanese-styled scenes slowly changed to forestry as the taxi driver got off the road and was followed by a few other taxis. He started to move up a slope and traveled through a winding road. He then circled up a cliffside before finally reaching level ground on top of a large plateau. The taxi came to a stop in front of a large double gate crafted from wood.
Looking down on the structure from above, you would see that it covered five hundred square meters of land, stretching from one end of the plateau to the other. The front of the building was facing the road as well as a large carpark where most of the hotel guests were received by some women dressed in traditional kimonos and the rear side of the building was bordered by a large forest.
There were no extra floors to increase the vertical height– like most traditional Japanese houses – but that only added to the impressiveness of it. There was an area in the center of the structure that was not roofed. Instead, you could see white smoke snaking out of that hole from a hot spring bath in the center of the building.
Once their cab stopped, Mark turned around and touched Arit's cheek gently. Arit hummed in her sleep but didn't wake up and Mark smiled as he held her shoulder and shook her slightly.
"Wazza?"
Arit sat up slowly while rubbing her eyes as Mark shook her and she looked around to see that they were back at the hotel. Arit blushed in embarrassment as she realized that she had fallen asleep and she quickly asked Mark why he didn't wake her up. She wanted to look at the festival too!
Mark chuckled as he opened the door.
"You looked cute while sleeping. I couldn't bring myself to disturb you."
Arit blushed even more and she huffed at Mark before trying to wake Talia. Talia mumbled something incoherent and Arit realized that Talia was not going to wake up anytime soon so she just carried Talia in her arms and got out of the car.
Mark got their bags and paid the cab driver, and the three of them stood in front of the resort and looked up at the enormous Japanese-styled gate in front of them. Mark couldn't help but be impressed.
"It's a lot bigger from this angle." (A/N: That's what she said.)
Arit thanked her enthusiastically, and she started dragging Mark along again as they made their way to the room. The rooms in the hotel were arranged in a long line down a hallway. Each door was reasonably spaced, showing that there was more than enough room in a single compartment to house at least five people.
The walls were made from traditional clay, and the doors had been crafted using Japanese paper and bamboo. Thankfully, the door was opaque enough to prevent anyone from seeing inside, but from how thin it was, Mark wondered if it could keep out any sound at all.
"This is it."
Arit put the key into the keyhole on a door and wrapped it open to unveil their room. Mark hummed in approval. The hotel was really pushing the whole Japanese folklore theme to the max! The room was like a traditional Japanese bedroom. There were tatami mats layered on the floor with a paper wall separating the rooms. The main room was more like a parlor and that was the first place they entered.
It had a round table in the middle of the room with a flowerpot on it and some pillows for sitting down.
The far wall had three doors. The first and second ones led to bedrooms that had the same tatami floors and two futons each. There were Japanese lanterns illuminating the bedrooms and making it a lot more subdued and homely than it had any right to be.
The last door led to a small bathroom with a bathtub, a chair for washing yourself, and a toilet. Mark couldn't see a kitchen, so he guessed that they would have to go outside and get something to eat if they were hungry. That was a nice tactic to make people leave their room sooner and start spending more money. The more Mark analyzed everything here, the more he wanted to become a part of it.
Can they make a car-themed festival for next year? Maybe something German-styled or Formula One? It would be nice to invest in something like that.
"Oh look, there are tiny cookies in the rooms! And the toilet has rubber ducks! The lanterns are made from paper too! Wait, that can't be safe at all."
Arit was moving around and touching everything happily. She had already dropped Talia in one of the rooms, so she was free to move around however she wanted. Mark chuckled at her enthusiasm and commented about how well-made the room was. They could stay here without any trouble for the next few days, but they shouldn't make too much noise because it might not be soundproof.
"Oh, they said something about that. It's soundproof. One of the superhumans working here used their blessing on the room. We can make loud noises and no one outside the room will hear us."
Mark raised an impressed brow. So they even had superhumans working here? Well, it was understandable. Things would be a lot easier and the constructions and decorations could be completed in a much shorter time if superhumans were also part of it.