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B. and I joined forces again and made our way out to Yokohama on Saturday. The trip is a quick one from my station of Nakameguro--a twenty-five minute trip by super express train. From the behemothic Yokohama station, we took a bus out to Honmoku to tour the devastatingly beautiful Sankai Gardens.
Sankai is divided into an inner and outer garden space. In the inner garden, a number of buildings from the Momoyama and Edo periods have been preserved, including one designed by the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu. A couple of the buildings feature the original Kano school decorations that adorned the screens in the early seventeenth century. There is a designated path that takes the visitor methodically through the space, which has the feel and flavor of an antique village sequestered within lushly verdant overgrowth. The trees, shrubs, and flowers are everywhere--gloriously so.
In the outer garden, there are strolling paths that line a collection of ponds--including a lotus and water lily pond--and hikes that take the visitor by turns up to an observatory deck from which you can view Minato Mirai and Yokohama Bay and up to a pagoda that looks out into the suburbs. Around every corner is a little surprise, a carved stone Kannon statue, an ice cream stand selling sakura (cherry blossom) cones at this late date, a local band practicing for an upcoming festival.
All in all, it was a delightful jaunt.
Riding back into the Minato Mirai district of the city, we took the moving walkway (all hail sidewalks of the future) to the Landmark Plaza where we took dozens of pictures of the skyline and ultra-modern city fixtures and on to Queen’s Square for more the same. Behind Queen’s Square is the Yokohama Museum of Art.
Though the museum is mainly devoted to modern and contemporary works, we spent a pleasant two hours there. There is a current exhibition organized by four different guest curators: a novelist, photographer, Japanese celebrity, and scientist. Each of the four guest curators selected works for a segment of the show, which highlighted the importance of viewer interaction with artwork. It was an intriguing curatorial display, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Much to our delight, there happened to be a free piano concerto being held in the museum that day. In addition to viewing the exhibition and the main collection, we also had the pleasure of listening to a good half hour of lovely classical music.
After such acculturations, we walked back to Queen’s Square where a street juggler was performing over loud speaker. The juxtaposition of high and vernacular culture was a fun one, and we watched the show for about ten minutes before heading over to Rinko Park, adjacent to Yokohama Bay, for a late lunch and stroll.
And then we parted ways, and I made my way home--by way of the supermarket--to cook, clean, shower, and do more homework.
We had an additional placement test on Friday, to determine which level we should enter. I did modestly well, and I think that I will succeed in getting into level four in the end, a fact that makes me very happy and also very daunted. The next six weeks are going to be murderous.
A narration of the class trip to Yamanashi Prefecture is still forthcoming (theoretically). Keep watching for that.
Sankai is divided into an inner and outer garden space. In the inner garden, a number of buildings from the Momoyama and Edo periods have been preserved, including one designed by the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu. A couple of the buildings feature the original Kano school decorations that adorned the screens in the early seventeenth century. There is a designated path that takes the visitor methodically through the space, which has the feel and flavor of an antique village sequestered within lushly verdant overgrowth. The trees, shrubs, and flowers are everywhere--gloriously so.
In the outer garden, there are strolling paths that line a collection of ponds--including a lotus and water lily pond--and hikes that take the visitor by turns up to an observatory deck from which you can view Minato Mirai and Yokohama Bay and up to a pagoda that looks out into the suburbs. Around every corner is a little surprise, a carved stone Kannon statue, an ice cream stand selling sakura (cherry blossom) cones at this late date, a local band practicing for an upcoming festival.
All in all, it was a delightful jaunt.
Riding back into the Minato Mirai district of the city, we took the moving walkway (all hail sidewalks of the future) to the Landmark Plaza where we took dozens of pictures of the skyline and ultra-modern city fixtures and on to Queen’s Square for more the same. Behind Queen’s Square is the Yokohama Museum of Art.
Though the museum is mainly devoted to modern and contemporary works, we spent a pleasant two hours there. There is a current exhibition organized by four different guest curators: a novelist, photographer, Japanese celebrity, and scientist. Each of the four guest curators selected works for a segment of the show, which highlighted the importance of viewer interaction with artwork. It was an intriguing curatorial display, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Much to our delight, there happened to be a free piano concerto being held in the museum that day. In addition to viewing the exhibition and the main collection, we also had the pleasure of listening to a good half hour of lovely classical music.
After such acculturations, we walked back to Queen’s Square where a street juggler was performing over loud speaker. The juxtaposition of high and vernacular culture was a fun one, and we watched the show for about ten minutes before heading over to Rinko Park, adjacent to Yokohama Bay, for a late lunch and stroll.
And then we parted ways, and I made my way home--by way of the supermarket--to cook, clean, shower, and do more homework.
We had an additional placement test on Friday, to determine which level we should enter. I did modestly well, and I think that I will succeed in getting into level four in the end, a fact that makes me very happy and also very daunted. The next six weeks are going to be murderous.
A narration of the class trip to Yamanashi Prefecture is still forthcoming (theoretically). Keep watching for that.
