Getuo (巨頭オ): The Deserted Village Marked by That Sign
It was pure coincidence that I remembered that village again.
It was a mountain village I had visited alone a few years ago while traveling.
It wasn’t a major tourist spot.
It wasn’t a famous hot spring town.
It was a small village that was hard to even find on a map.
Still, it stayed in my memory.
There was an old inn.
The room was old, and the TV barely worked.
The hallway smelled of mold.
The bathroom water took a long time to get warm.
But strangely, I didn’t dislike it.
The innkeeper didn’t talk much but was kind.
The dinner was simple, but the rice was warm and the miso soup had lots of green onions.
In the morning, I could see the mountains outside the window.
I had only spent one night in that village, yet I thought about it from time to time over the years.
So on the first day of a long weekend, I drove there.
I remembered the road.
I’m good at remembering roads.
I rarely forget a route I’ve taken once.
I can roughly recall where I turned right, where the road narrowed, even which gas station was before the mountain road.
It was the same that day.
I left the highway and took the national road.
I passed an intersection with a small market and went through a tunnel.
After that, there should have b