Miho Museum, Japan

Sunday night we had dinner at Minerva's Restaurant in Kerrisdale with a business associate of Neil's, Earl, and his wife Hanna.  They wanted to talk to us about their upcoming trip to Japan, and get ideas of special places to visit there.  Neil and I spent three weeks in Japan in April, 2003.  After dinner they came back to our home to look at our Japan pictures.  This sure brought back memories for Neil and I.  We had spent 8 days in Tokyo, 4 nights in Kyoto and 2 nights in Osaka.  We made many day trips out of Tokyo and Kyoto.

One of the biggest highlights of our touring throughout Japan was spending a day getting to and from the Miho Museum, located about one hour by train/bus from Kyoto.  We took public transit, first by train, then bus to the JR Ishiyama train station. From there we took a taxi up the mountain to the museum, which had opened just the year before.  So there was no regular bus service from the train station to the museum then, but there is now.

The Miho Museum was designed by world famous architect, I. M. Pei, who designed the Grand Louvre glass triangle in Paris.  The museum was the dream of a family in Japan who had collected many interesting art objects and antiquities from ancient civilizations - the Middle East, Greece, Asia, China and Italy.

But it is the spectacular design of the museum - including the approach and its setting in the wooded mountains that makes you gasp with delight and amazement.

Entrance - Parking Lot

Spectacular Entrance way from the Parking Lot - Tunnel bored through the mountain

Coming out of the Tunnel at the other end and approaching the Museum

Arial View of the Museum Complex - from the Museum website

View from Main Floor Lobby Entrance to the Museum -
large windows which bring in the outdoors - pine trees, forests and mountains

Another view inside the entrance way - this shows of I.M. Pei's design
of the roof complex form underneath

Looking down the long hall to the right of the entrance

Close up of the tile mosaic in the floor in the above picture

Egyptian Statute

Oriental Statue

Saying one last goodbye in the lobby of the museum - spectacularly beautiful

This was truly the most memorable part of our visit to Japan, and I highly recommend that visitors make the effort to get to this site.  The air and the drinking water were much purer and satisfying to the soul.  Lovely restaurant too.