Katya, Fedya, and Vika・・・It was exactly one month ago that I met these three single Muscovites.

＊　　As the young people were interested in design, architecture, and painting, I took them to the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo in Takebashi first thing in the morning.　　It was after the Meiji Restoration (1867) that Japanese people learned Western painting from traditional art such as Japanese painting and ukiyo-e. They liked the quiet and warm space where ink paintings and oil paintings were exhibited, and they carefully traced the genealogy of Japanese art from modern to contemporary times.　　The youngest, Vika, walked around enthusiastically, so in the third floor art room, she took a break on a stool and gazed at the magnificent masterpieces of Japanese painting.

＊　　A few days later, we were at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. In fact, Katya had come to Japan last October and invited her two good friends to the world of Hayao Miyazaki. It seems she wanted to show them how the animators' imaginations had expanded among the art books and stationery from Japan and abroad at this intimate museum surrounded by greenery.　

＊　　The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum was located in a corner of Koganei Park, which we took a bus to from Musashi-Koganei Station. Many buildings, from farmhouses from the Edo period to the appearance of a prewar Showa era town, had been relocated or restored and were on display. The residence of famous architect Maekawa Kunio had a modern atmosphere. The wooden house of Showa's Minister of Finance Takahashi Korekiyo was magnificent, and Feja stopped to look at the arrangement of sliding doors and shoji screens.　　　　

＊　　On the way back to the hotel, the three of them walked through the hustle and bustle of Kabukicho in Shinjuku, their eyes shining with excitement at the gaudy signs.　What impression did they have of Tokyo, where old and new history, and East and West civilizations coexist so harmoniously? If the Muscovites, having experienced a part of modern Japan, can appreciate the value of a peaceful society from their trip to Japan, a time when there is no war, then my job as a guide will have been worth it. I fondly recall the faces of the three young people.　

I would like to add some snapshots from the two museums.（T.Terada）