Kyoto Day 2

We left Kyoto for an hour and half bus ride to the Miho Museum. This is an example of what can happen if you have unlimited yen and don’t want to leave it to your children! The family that endowed the museum decided to build it on top of a mountain in the middle of national forest. They hired IM Pei as the architect. They created an amazing museum in total harmony with the mountains. It is quite a ride to the top of the mountain. You then walk through a long tunnel and arrive at the museum. There were many exhibits at the museum including Small Objects, and Buddhist Statues from China. The vistas from the museum were amazing. On the ride to and from the Museum we saw many small villages centered around their rice fields. The rice fields are flooded at this time of year.

After lunch at the museum we drove to a famous Japanese Potters studio: Otani Shiro. He uses wood fired clay oven to create his pots and plates. The process is very ancient and is called: Shigaraki after the name of the village where many of these potters live and produce today. We ordered a set of dinner plates. Expect to see an upgrade in the photos of Munch-Munch when the plates arrive in a 2 months or so.

We then went to the Some Textile Museum. We saw a small but very nice exhibit of Indigo textiles. There were lots of great items, nothing for sale, no catalog. It was the kind of show that you only need to spend a 30 minutes in, but can really appreciate what an artist can do.

From there Cathy and I split off and did our first shopping of the trip. We went to a store we had previously been to in Kyoto. It is called Gingenko (sp). Nice clothing!

Back to the Hotel, Drink some Sake and off to dinner. We met some tour-mates at a restaurant that turned out to be a new one for us. We thought we were returning to a place we had been to before. We all a had a 10 course Japanese dinner, with lots of Sake. They spoke NO English, we spoke no Japanese. Somehow they figured out what we wanted: Lots of good sake and lots of interesting food. We were seated in a private room and loved the experience.

Taxi back to the hotel and ready for bed.