So,after a good rehearsal in the hall,taking full advantage of the acoustics and enjoying the worlds of Beethoven,Elgar and Massenet,I was immediately brought back to reality.

For the past few years there has been something that has been a problem in our home and because we couldn't get rid of it,it has always been in the back of my mind. Part of the house that we live in is quite old and is made of wood in a Japanese traditional style.Some of the walls are made of clay which means that they adjust to the humidity naturally. The problem is that we've had some unwanted guests in between the cielings for several years!

This has become a common problem in Japan as there have been several animals which had been imported into our country as pets and have gone wild. Because they don't have any natural predators apparently the numbers have just exploded. We've had raccoons at one point and have been trying desperately to get rid of them by trying to close off any parts of the house that they use to enter the house. But because it's a wooden house and some parts are clay they seem to just bite or dig their way through! I've often tried to scare them away by banging on the ceiling with a snooker cue stick! They've become really obnoxious though as recently they would just slowly move from one end of the ceiling to the other as if they knew that I wouldn't do anything but scare them off. If they just lived there and didn't do any harm I wouldn't mind. But they rip all the walls and heat insulation to move around the house and also they leave so much behind them that it not only smells terrible but at one point I had found that the ceiling over my piano (Steinway!) was collapsing! We had to quickly get the whole ceiling redone. The carpenters found the hole and closed it off. I was so happy as it seemed like we had at last gotten rid of the problem only to hear the footsteps again over that same ceiling (just a week later!!!!!)

So,I hope some people will sympathize with what just happened yesterday...
For years,we've been trying to get rid of these animals in a defensive way. But,nothing has really worked and so I had to go to the town hall to get some help. They were really helpful as it seems that so many people have been having the same problem. Even the person whom I had spoken with at the desk has been a victim!

They give you a cage and show you when and where and how to use it. There are several rules you have to follow and it had become a daily chore. Because these animals are nocturnal I would have to set up the trap at night. When nothing is caught I would have to collect the fruit that I had set in the trap and then close it the next morning so it wouldn't catch any cats or squirrels during the day. I knew there were at least three of them around but I hadn't had any luck for about a month. So this had become my daily routine. SO far from the beautiful world of music!!!

Anyway,although I was exhausted after this rehearsal at the hall,and although it was slightly raining,I cut some apples and put them in the cage and set the trap up.(I was told that they are often caught after the rain.)

I woke up the next morning,went to the cage thinking I have to get the apples out again so I wouldn't catch anything else,only to find,to my surprise(!!!) a masked palm civet.(It's something like a raccoon and a badger but together.)

It wasn't very big but it was quite scary to find a wild animal that I had never seen before, They are now the most common nuisance alongside the raccoon which have been tearing up peoples houses and also many temples!

I was a bit stirred up by the whole thing which isn't really good before a concert. I didn't realize something like this could shake me up so much! I guess it's a mixture of things but I realize I shouldn't be doing things like this too close to the concert. Glad that it happened now rather than the day itself!