Just in front of the balcony, there were maple trees. They surely look beautiful in late autumn when the leaves turn red. According to my sister, it is very difficult to reserve a room then and roads in Hakone are crowded with cars. From the balcony, I saw a trail. After breakfast, I walked there for a while. In the hotel, there was a sticker warning about a wild boar, but I couldn’t see one.
Hakone has a lot to see. If you participate in a bus tour, you can experience the highlights of the area such as Hakone Ropeway, cruise on Lake Ashino, and Hakone Checkpoint of the Edo Period in a day. But this time, we visited Okada Museum of Art because my mother was interested in an ukiyoe painting called “Snow in Fukagawa” she had seen on TV.
From the bus station Ohiradai near the hotel, we took a bus to Kowakuen. It was already crowded with tourists, and my sister and I had to stand. The bus running through the mountainous area often swung sharply. It took about 15 minutes to Kowakien, and the museum was very close to the bus stop. The museum held an exhibition of gold screens made from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century.
These three women are from “Snow in Futagawa”, the painting my mother wanted to see.
When I entered the museum, we put our mobile phones, camera, PET bottles, and bags in lockers. It was prohibited to take pictures, and we went through security check as in an airport. It was unusual for a museum in Japan to conduct such check, however, I thought it might be necessary when I saw precious exhibits in the museum.
The first floor has a fulfilling collection of Chinese and Korean ceremics. We could see many kinds of ceramics that we had seen in our high school textbooks of history. One of the most impressive exhibits was a Chinese sancai camel from Tang Dynasty (618-907). The camel showed its teeth and looked lively. The colors were vivid though it was made a long time ago. I was also glad to see some Korean Goryeo ware. One of them looked very graceful and unforgettable with its pale greenish-blue color.
From 11:30, they had a guided tour of the exhibition of golden screens on the 3rd floor. According to their website, the English title is “Japan: Country of Gold Screens of the Kano, Hasegawa, Rinpa and Other Schools.” The curator explained characteristics of each school and motifs they used. According to her, this is the first exhibition in Japan that specializes in gold screens. There were about 30 screens, which looked simply gorgeous.
The tour ended around 12:00, and we hurried to the restaurant Kaikatei on the premises of the museum. I ate udon noodles with mushrooms. Kaikatei uses dried bonito broth for the sauce and has no vegetarian or vegan dish for lunch. As for vegetarian-friendly facilities or restaurants, there is Hakone Kowakien Yunessun a few minutes walk from the museum, which has an Italian restaurant, buffet restaurant, and bakery. When you are hungry, you can leave the museum temporarily to have lunch outside and come back to the museum because the ticket is valid all day. But Kaitatei in the museum becomes a café after 14:00. Then you can have some sweets and drink while enjoying a wonderful view of the garden.
The garden is large and may be interesting to explore, but we went back to the building of the museum after lunch. Since it is a five-story building, we had still a lot to see.
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