After all there was Kappa-kun.  If you follow the nearby mountain path in search of the Himeyuri that blooms during the rainy season, you will come across a small pond.  There is a kappa dropping his fishing line on the pond all day.  Whether he is catching or not, the appearance of looking into the pond is a quite angler.  According to Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Kappa is a “special protection resident” and “he is laughing at what we humans are seriously thinking, and at the same time he is seriously thinking about what we humans are laughing at”.  The kappa loses energy when the plate on his head dries.  Perhaps because of that, the “special protection resident” in this pond wears a straw hat all year round.  While doing so, it began to rain.  I wanted to make sure that  Kappa takes off his straw hat, but it was getting colder, so I hurried down the mountain.

やっぱり河童くんがいました。梅雨時分に咲くヒメユリを求めて近くの山道を辿ると小さな池に出くわします。その池の袂に日がな一日釣り糸を垂れている河童がいます。釣れているのかいないのか、池を覗き込む姿だけは一角の大公望。芥川龍之介によれば、河童は「特別保護住人」で「我々人間の真面目に思うことを可笑しがる、同時に我々人間の可笑しがることを真面目に思う」そうです。河童は頭の皿が乾くと元気を無くします。そのせいか、この池の「特別保護住人」は年がら年中笑帽子を被っています。そうこうしているうちに雨が降り出しました。河童くんが麦わら帽子を脱ぐのを見届けたかったのですが、寒くなってきたので急いで下山しました。