Katriona's Diary

It has been raining since last night. And today, the Meteorological Agency declared that today the annual reiny season has begun. This means now we are officially at the beginning of summer - after these rainy days we'll have the long, severe summer heat :( I'm not happy at all!

At the end of the last year I have installed the security cameras outside of our house. They always record the view in front of the entrance door & back door, and when something moves in their sight they send message to my smartphone. Sometimes I checked the video to see if everything's all right. Most of time the moving thing is waving tree or insect, and of course sometimes they record our garden cats walking into or out of the garden X)

Some days ago I checked the video recorded in the middle of the night, and found some animals walking out of our garden - but they are bigger than the cats !





The video is not clear enough but I can see they have the thick, striped tails. So I think they are raccoons!!

Here in Japan originally there were no raccoons, they are the exotic animals. But now they lives everywhere though the number of them is not much big and we seldom see them. I heard many raccoons have hydrophobia or other dangerous diseases, I hope our garden cat would not come across them :(

I’m going to visit the Peak District in UK in this coming summer, and enjoy looking at the paper maps or Google map on computer screen sometimes. And the names of the places … Mam Tor, Stanage Edge, Cave Dale… oh how these names look fascinating to me!

Today after work I went to some public office to get the new passport. I had used the old one for 10 years and its validity ended in May, so some weeks ago I applied for the new one.

Compared to the last one, the photo of myself on the new one looks - quite -older X( But, anyway now I can travel abroad again with it X)

Today I wear the new shoes I have got on the last weekend. The new shoes or clothes always make us a bit happier than usual :)

At the end of 19th century, there were many - about 2,500 or so - Westerners in Japan as the advisors about Western knowledge or technology, hired by Japanese government. Some of them had collected Japanese craftworks or works of art during their stay and brought them to their home country. One of those foreigners, a certain German doctor had purchaced many traditional craft products and pictures in Japan, after he returned to Europe he donated them to the local museum in his hometown later in his life. But in Germany there were not many scholars or specialists who can understand Japanese art thus those traditional artistic works had been just stored in the museun storage for more than 100 years. Then, on 2000's, one Japanese scholar who happened to be studying in German univercity found those cultural treasures, especially a series of picture scrolls attracted his attention. Unfortunately he did not have enough time to study them so he told his successor, who was the specialist about Japanese art in Edo period, that she should check that picture scrolls. Thus, about 6 years ago this woman scholar opened that old picture rolls maybe for the first time during these 100 years, and found it was a quite precious Emakimono, the illustrated handscrolls created in Edo period, telling the legend about the ancestor of famous Samurai and ogres. She studied the handscrolls, cooperated with other scholars and museums, wrote the thesis on it etc. And this year, that picture scrolls returned to Japan for the exhibition in some art museum in Tokyo, for the first time since when the German doctor had brought them to Europe.

That scholar who studied the handscrolls, is my cousin. I imagine how she would have been excited when she opened it in the museum storage in Germany! Must be the wonderful moment for a scholar.

Today after work I’m going to the art museum to see that picture scrolls. Might be very impressive!

I added the photos of the scrolls my cousin had found in Germany. In the museum, taking the photos of the exhibit was prohibited so I took photos of the exhibition catalog.

This week I had two days to work at home. So I have often seen our garden cats relaxing on our wooden verandah. I saw one cat sleeping on the very edge of the verandah, and his forefoot and head have almost fallen from there. He regained his balance but seemed to be still sleeping. This is the photo I took just after that moment XD

This morning it was raining, but soon stopped. Then almost wholeday it’s cloudy with just occasional weak sunshine. It’s humid but without sun it’s rather cool and the humidity was tolerable.



I saw two garden cats on the verandah every time I go out into the garden. They seemed tobe there for hours X)



After 1 hour and 30 minutes I saw them at same place but their positions were reversed XD



Then in the afternoon.



They are really happy cats it seems.

Yesterday I went to the movie theatre after work. When I was younger I used to go to see the movie - once for a month or two months, I prefer seeing the film in the theatre to do on the computer screen. But during the Covid pandemic when I have seldom gone out I have lost the custom of going to see the movie. It's after a while - maybe some years - I went to the theatre to see the film.

The film was good, I enjoyed it. Though I rememberd why I had stopped going to see the film. Looking at the big screen in the theatre makes my eyes tired, espcially in the evening, my eyes can't focus well on the screen in the last part of the film :( I had liked reading the end credits before but yesterday I noticed I could not read the small letters on the screen at all :( The pity of it!

There is another film I'd like to see so I should sit on a seat relatively close to the screen and see if I can see more clearly. Well... this was an unpleasant awareness :(

There is a small glass roof outside of the entrance door of our house. Today it's fine, warm and humid! Soon we'll have the severe summer days... I have worked at home today. In the morning I went out of the entrance door, thought of stretching my legs and arms. Then... noticed there was something on the glass roof.



??



They looked like legs of...



Yes, it was a cat!! XD