Tag: museum

American Museum of Natural History

Posted on by Hijiri

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So last Friday, we went to the American Museum of Natural History. It was our Valentine’s day family date. We’ve been there few times before, but it was our first time taking our 1-year-old Mili there… it was extra fun! She especially liked the mammals area and the ocean life area, which I’d never been before and so it was cool to see that part. Here are some photos from the day — enjoy!

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This giant canoe had a cool pattern!

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Happy Friday and have a great weekend everyone! I’ll be turning one year older tomorrow… :) xo Hijiri

Benesse House Museum

Posted on by Hijiri

I posted about the Benesse House, but today, I want to share my experience from the Benesse House Museum. Again, all designed by the amazing Tadao Ando. I couldn’t take any pictures inside, but there is this outside area where I could take some photos…

The artworks you see here are by Hiroshi Sugimoto Time Exposed , 1980-97

There were so many things to enjoy this area, my friend and I spent good amount of time and we could easily spent more…

His photographs are serving as a time capsule for a series of events in time… with the waterlines at different times…

The walls end and you see ocean in between the walls — but notice the ocean waterline and the artwork waterline? It aligns! So I guess you are seeing the “current” in here… so very awesome… Also, I couldn’t take a photo, but from here, you can see a tiny something on the little island… We’d been wondering and later we found out that it’s also his same series waterline work hang it on the island! So that aligns with all the work as well. Amazing.

Like this one. This is the other one we found — what a discovery! We were pretty excited.

Even stairs are designed great…

Another art you can enjoy in between the walls are these boats installation (yellow and black — do you see?). These are exactly the same from the painting in the museum, when you look at the painting and look outside, you see the same art. How awesome! right?

Really enjoyed visiting! I attended a little tour also, and that was very cool, too.

Benesse House

Posted on by Hijiri

I want to post about the Benesse House we stayed at — great experience all around! There are few parts where you can stay, but we stayed at the Museum room which was a rare and awesome experience. We enjoyed the museum in the middle of the night, too :)

A Kaiseki dinner at the Museum restaurant Issen. I love kaiseki — it is work of art indeed. So. very. pretty. and goooooood.

A Basquiat work:

After the dinner, we went up to the Oval area. Only hotel guests at the museum or the oval can visit this area with a little cable car. These blue doors are to the hotel rooms, there is an oval shaped water fountain in the middle and the top is also oval shaped, opened to the sky.

The sky, the reflections, the lighting… it was beautiful…

Next morning, we went up to this area again for another look. A view from the little cable car you take…

Morning Oval — it looks so different!

You can go up and walk around and look down…

Cool surroundings: fountain.

The rectangle area is like a painting, but that’s a glass wall and crosswalk.

I highly recommend visiting/staying there if you ever have a chance! Thank you to my best friend, Mitchy, too!!! Love you! xoxo

Chichu Art Museum

Posted on by Hijiri

This week, I am going to take you all to Naoshima. This was one of my highlights of the trip, my friend and I spent our whole day and a half at Benesse Art Site — it was amazing! Really enjoyed everything. Must go back there again someday…

It’s a ferry boat ride away from Takamatsu port…

We are going to Chichu Art Museum today…

Pretty flowers were everywhere…

The word ‘chichu’ means ‘in the ground’ and true to its name, the Museum is built almost entirely into the hill. The bold design thus maintains harmony with the natural landscape. The architect used only the most basic materials – concrete, steel, glass and wood – to create this masterpiece. (via SIAF website)

It is designed by Tadao Ando — his work is truly amazing, the space, the concrete, the atmosphere… you have to be there and feel the space to know what I mean, you just get stunned by the whole space! Oh, I loved it.

Inside of the museum is strictly no photography… you just have to go there :) Even though there are only few work from Claude Monet, James Turrell, and Walter De Maria, the each room takes your breath away, I could only say “amazing” over and over again!!

There is a little outside area from the cafe…

and of course the great Seto Inland Sea view…

The building you see is the Benesse House hotel — where we stayed! I’ll talk about that later…