Japan has been on my mind for 20+ years, I have no idea why it took that long for me to finally get my body here. Even after all that anticipation, it did not disappoint.
We flew into Tokyo, took in the sites and the food! We were here during the off season, which meant that we kind of got the best of both worlds. Beautiful snowy days when we ventured up into the mountains in Nagano and we got the first hints of spring with premature cherry trees starting to blossom in the city. It was not hard to find beauty here.
The Tokyo National Museum houses some of the oldest ceramics I’ve ever seen, the horse is from 500AD and the vessels are from 11,000-7,000BC, the forms and decoration are striking. The history of clay here is real and humbling. Juxtapose that with the modern crowdsourced art project my husband was adding to – Tokyo has got it all. Being able to buzz around the country on the Shinkansen we adventured all over and eventually worked our way south to Kyoto.
Kyoto is an eye-candy of a city; with its traditional architecture, geishas and multitude of shrines and temples all mixed up with the attributes of any modern city. One of our favorite finds was a once a month flea market filled with antique kimonos, fabrics, bonsai plants and food stalls. And the food, have I mentioned the food?
On a day trip to Hiroshima to take in the Peace Memorial and Museum, we also discovered the sculpture garden of the Contemporary Art Museum. I was surprised to find some of my favorite artists work in this gorgeous location.
This is only part one, stay tuned…