Hakone - Visit the Pola Art Museum

 I like art museums. Visiting them makes me feel cultured and refined; I feel good. The Pola Museum of Art is in a secluded part of Hakone, tucked away in the middle of a forest. It's very nice. Pola MOA

Today we will be looking at the Roni Horn exhibition Roni Horn

The first thing we see is a room full of these things. Each one is about 1 meter in diameter. We, along with other visitors walk around the room and I thing we are all thinking the same thing... WTF are we looking at.  That's art!

The next room as paintings and photographs in it. Roni Horn spent a lot of time in Iceland. Most of what we are seeing are from those visits. 

A lighthouse.

I'll step back and give a bigger picture of the exhibit. 

Another room and it's all photographs of water. Roni likes water. By-the-way... have you noticed that I'm taking pictures in a Art Museum? Most museums prohibit photography, this place seems to encourage it. There are signs at the entrance of every room saying "Photo OK".

Roni Horn also likes to play with words.

Next up is the "Monet In The Light" Exhibit.

I like Monet. Who doesn't like Monet? 

Now on to the permanent exhibitions. Somebody is blocking my view.

That's better. 

Nudes are good! 

Abstract. When I was young I didn't care much for abstract art; now I love it.

Painting using traditional Japanese mineral based paint.

A bowl.

Every art museum has an overpriced café. 

This woman is showing the signs of museum fatigue. Or, maybe she's checking out my reflection in the mirror? Maybe yes! Probably no 😢

Me again, this time I'm checking out the gift shop. 

Time to go. Looking down as we ascend the escalator up to the exit. 

Our hotel for the night was not far from the museum but we needed to kill some time before we could check in. The Sengokuhara Marsh is just a short walk from the hotel so off we went to check it out. Sengokuhara

A bilingual sign for tourists.

A marsh in winter.

We've killed enough time, lets go check in.

A warm room, a bottle of wine and a TV controller. All the comforts of home.

Next morning. It's time to catch a bus to the train station in Hakone Yumoto.

Hakone-Yumoto train station is quite the place. Hakone-Yumoto 

It's the gateway to all things Hakone.

The Hakone Tozan train has just arrived at the station and all the passengers are pouring out of it.

The train is run with military precision.

Here comes our train. We're heading for Odawara. 

While we were waiting for our train to depart I noticed on the other side of the platform the Romance train from Tokyo had just arrived. One of the cleaning staff bows and welcomes the passengers.

We have arrived in Odawara. It's a big train station.

Another express train is heading for Hakone-Yumoto station.

We ventured into town for lunch. 

After lunch it was back to Odawara station and our trip back to home!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mike

Bonus shots!