#explore kyoto

Monday 9th October 2017. 11:00 Kyoto Japan.

We visited The Garden of Fine Arts which is about a 20 minute cycle from my house, situated right next to the Botanical Gardens.

The project was conceived as a contemporary, volumetric version of a stroll garden. The open-air Fine Arts Museum is situated below ground level to keep the view from the adjacent Botanical Gardens towards the Higashiyama mountains intact.

The museum displays reproductions of famous masterpieces on ceramic plates with permanent, weatherproof properties. The scheme is open; large concrete beams on massive pillars, overlapping bridges and ramps, walls of cascading water and pools with paintings floating on the water surface.

Circulation is intersected by massive concrete walls, allowing views from different angles, and adding depth and variety to the exhibition spaces. The greenish glass railing, in contrast to the concrete and stone surfaces, interact with the water surface reflecting the different materials.

I’ve wanted to visit here for a while and at just 100yen entrance fee you can’t really complain. The actually space was really cool I just wasn’t too keen on the actual art works. 

Thursday 23rd November 2017. 12:00 Mt. Kurama Kyoto.

Today was another public holiday, which I didn’t know about again until this morning haha, so I decided to get the train to Kyoto and climb Mt. Kurama. It was only a few days ago when I was thinking about the Koyo in Kyoto so I was grateful for this day off to go and see the Koyo and have some time outside. It was a beautiful day, but the trains were super busy due to it being the public holiday.

Kurama didn’t disappoint, it was a dream!