HakoNEH? Part I

Ehhhh? Henry Moore? In Japan?
Indeed. Tuesday started out with a visit to the Hakone Open Air Museum (and indoor Picasso painted ceramics museum). This turned out to be one of my favorite parts of our trip. The museum started out with this amazing statue on a big column, looking out over a valley with mountains on either side. Modern sculptures with parts that rotate and spin in the wind, sculptured tunnels that dip underground, and traditional sculptures of girls sitting on benches fill the grounds at every turn and wind in the path. The museum is also beautifully landscaped, with small koi filled ponds surrounded by ferns pushing their fiddlehead starts out of the ground underneath cherry trees just waiting for the next warm day to burst forth. The museum contains work from artists from all over the world, Russia, Brazil, England, America, and of course Japan. What the museum is really known for though, is its rotating collection of Henry Moore pieces. For all the other non-artists out there who might be thinking, "where did I hear this name?" One of his pieces recently made headlines for being purloined in England (I think). Notably, for being stolen using at least a small crane to lift it. It was enormous. Anyway, the museum was awesome, one of my favorite pieces was this big spiral staircase encased entirely in stained glass. I also really liked a piece called "the hand of god". Which I assure you is amazing in real life, even if pictures can't capture it. OK, I gotta run off to Aikido . Later I'll recount our journey across steaming sulfurous landscapes in a cable car followed by pirate ship ride. I'll leave you with those thoughts.