Hakone is a famous town at the foothills of Mount Fuji. It's famous for hot springs, Lake Ashi, museums, and shrines.
Of all the museums in Hakone, the most famous is The Hakone Open-Air Museum. However, they really need to add a word to the English name. The Japanese name is Sculpture Museum. For years I thought they were two different museums. When we arrived, I was surprised to learn they were the same!
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| Ticket, ¥1,600/person |
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| The Hakone Open-Air Museum |
The most famous exhibit in this museum is the Picasso exhibit. If I remembered correctly, this was in the 1980s when Japan had so much money, someone or some corporation bought a bunch of Picasso arts. It was fascinating. I learned Picasso not only did paintings but also pottery in his later life.
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| Picasso Pavilion |
The sculptures in the museum are strategically placed among beautifully manicured garden. There is one by Rodin! That is a delightful discovery because Math Teacher really likes Rodin.
Me, on the other hand, took this picture only. All Japanese people know the English word "chicken"; it's in their daily vocabulary. The Japanese name of the sculpture is "Girl holding a Chicken". So why do they translate the name to English as "Girl with Cock"?
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| Girl with Cock |
Next we went to Kuzuryu Shrine (Nine Dragons Shrine). It is a popular and sacred shrine by Lake Ashi. It has a red torii gate by the water and a red torii gate in the water. It is also part of the Hakone Shrine complex. There are so many shrines and torii gates around Hakone; pilgrims spend their lives traveling from one to another.
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| Kuzuryu Shrine 1 |
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| Kuzuryu Shrine 2 |
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| Kuzuryu Shrine 3 |
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| Kuzuryu Shrine 4 |
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九頭龍神社
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Lastly we went to the large red torii gate by the water for Hakone Shrine; this one was called Peace Torii Gate. My gosh, it was so popular with tourists that we had to get in line to take a picture. The half moon was up; it was nice.
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| 箱根神社 |
While waiting with other tourists to take a picture, we saw winding hiking trails along Lake Ashi. Perhaps we will come back to Hakone and Lake Ashi to do some hiking and stay in a fancy hot spring resort. Hakone is actually not easy to get to if one is not from downtown Tokyo. All transportation around Hakone is built with Tokyo in mind. So if one is from other cities, it takes a long time to make circuitous route to get to Hakone.
