The Atami Museum of Art - Part 1

 My wife and I really enjoy visiting museums. I especially enjoy a good Museum of Art. We were checking for Onsen locations for an overnight trip and we discovered that the Onsen Town of Atami's MOA had a special Ceramics exhibition. This was an easy decision, we were going to Atami!

By bus and local train Atami is only a few hours from our house. From Atami train station to the Museum it's a short bus ride up a steep (I mean really steep!) hill. A person could walk from the station to the MOA but I highly recommend the bus. 

We have arrived at the entrance of the MOA. 

However, the trip up the hill is far from over. After one enters the MOA one needs to ride the escalators to heaven!

Not just one escalator, there are at least 3 of them.

You just keep going up and up and up!

...and, up some more! But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Actually it's the MOA's famous Circular Hall with kaleidoscope ceiling.

Read about it here: The Circular Hall

The entrance is on the right side of this picture. 

After awhile the ceiling lightens up. Today there is an exhibit of children's art in the  Circular Hall.

Time to exit the hall; of course we have to go up another escalator.

At the top of the escalator we are greeted with a panoramic view of Atami bay. 

Then we go "up" some steps to enter the art exhibition hall.

Now we begin the art exhibition!  This is MOA's website information on this exhibition: https://www.moaart.or.jp/en/events/miraihetunagutogei/

The nice thing about this exhibition is that photography is authorized. The only restrictions are "no flash-photography" and "no tripods".

These are several of my favorites from the exhibition.

This jar is so famous in Japan that even I know about it.

A second picture of it.

And, a little info. It's a national tresure.

Moving on.

By-the-way, I thought that I'd share with you the fact that I had to squat down or get on my knees to take all these pictures.

Also, all these priceless pieces of ceramic art are behind thick glass.  

It must be special non-reflective glass because I didn't have any issues with glare or reflections while taking these pictures.

It was hard to decide which pieces to photograph and which not to; there were so many of them and they are all beautiful. 

Every piece on display had a bilingual description (Japanese & English). I found that very helpful. It's nice to know who was the artist and where and when the item was made.

Some objects were so special they were in individual display cases. Regrettably the lighting in these display cases made  photography to difficult; terrible glare and reflections.

And, of course there is a museum gift shop - very expensive!

After the gift shop there is a restaurant and also a cake & coffee shop. Next to the coffee shop was a bus schedule and we noticed that if we hurried we could catch the next bus back to town. 

We descended all the escalators as quickly as we could. 

And, we were just in time to catch the bus back to the train station.

Back in front of the train station and the clock on the left side of the picture says it's 13:50. Our hotel check-in time is 15:00... so the adventure continues!

Part 2 will be coming soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mike 

Bonus shots!