Tea ceremony and Japanese ambiance

Plum blossoms at Kitano Tenmangu. So many different colours from white to dark pink mixed with all kind of lanterns. So beautiful!

There were also very good exhibition of Alphonse Mucha's work at Kyoto railways station. There is a "skyway" kind of path in the roof of the station that can be walked and the view is quite nice.


One of the highlights of the places we visited were this Kawai Kanjiro's house museum. It used to be the home of famous potter and nowdays it can be visited. There are his work showcased but also his collection of furniture and everything. For me the atmosphere and environment he lived and worked in was so harmonious and so so Japanese. It was something I haven't seen here yet so strongly.  






Beautiful kimonos in a special exhibition, where taking photos was not allowed - so I only managed to get this one beautiful detail.
 
The other highlight was to have a tea ceremony with Shihos family in Shokado garden. After that we had so good temaki sushi at their house. Thank you for such a great day!

Naoshima & Teshima

There is so much happening here in Japan that it is very difficult to keep up with the posts! Well anyway last weekend we went to Naoshima and Teshima, islands famous for their modern architecture and museums. The money we paid for the transport ect went to the charity, to the children who lost their parents in an earthquake.

We took a buss from our school and after 5 hours we were in Uno, where we changed to a ferry to go to Naoshima and after to Teshima.

Us on the ferry.

Rainy morning at Naoshima.

After arriving to Naoshima and buying some umbrellas we went to a Chichu art museum (made by Tadao Ando) and it was such an experience!

We were not allowed to take pictures inside so we mainly managed to take some of this triangle space.

Raw concrete with gray colour palette.

A corridor rounding the space with open, one line window.

Also the art works inside were amazing! The Monet's paintings (combination with the room and paintings) were one of the highlights. The building was also such an experience, like walking in an art piece!

After The Chichu museums we went to the Benesse house (again no photos inside :() and then we just send some time at the shore waiting for the shuttlebuss taking us back to the port.

On shore there were a wedding couple.

And some Spanich tourist were wondering this installation but they were only taking their wedding pictures.

Torii at the spot where we changed our buss.

And the pumpkin!

Hyun, Mew and Jino.

Our hostell/guesthouse were in Teshima. Futons & tatami floor, and fun evening :)

Second day at Teshima, on the way to Teshima art museum.

On the way to the museum.

On the way to the museum.

And again no pictures inside, but again such an experience! I've never felt the architecture as strongly as in these museums where they play one of the main roles.

And the bathroom were quite cool too :)

The last art work we sawwhile walking back to the hostel.

Great weekend with great people but naturally too little time to see everything!

Empty Vatican Museum

Early morning in Vatican museum. It felt amazing to wonder around the huge, enormous halls all alone in peace and solitude. The architecture and patterns in the walls, floors and ceilings were so beautiful! Since I love statues and this kind of monumental architecture, it was such an experience to see these spaces - normally packed with people - totally empty.