Jitensha. Solitary Japanese bicycles

Water & light

We had a friend visiting last weekend, so of course we took him to my favorite museum, Mizunokuni, and this gives me an excuse to post some more pics.

My overriding experience there is of water, light, and stone, so thats what these few pics are of.

Museum 104, or its more common name "Mizunokuni" is open from 9 to 5, Thursdays through Mondays. Entrance 400yen per adult, 200yen for kids.

Mizunokuni is located on Rte 261 along the Gonokawa River, about 25 kilometres upstream from Gotsu. There is a JR station about 2k away at Shikaga.

The chances are that the vast majority of you reading this blog will never make it to Mizunokuni as it is simply off the beaten track, but if anyone is interested in visiting, please contact me and I can help arrange a visit.

More post on Mizunokuni

Tatara Bridge

I found this draincover on Ikuchijima, Hiroshima Prefecture, and it depicts the Tatara Bridge which connects Ikuchijima with Omishima.

Sunrise

When I took the photos it was the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, with a central span of 890 metres, but last year a longer bridge was built over the Yangtze in China, and a soon to be completed bridge in Hong Kong will cause the Tatara bridge to drop to third.

Sunset

The bridge is one of 10 that connects Honshu with Shikoku along the Nishiseto Expressway, also known as the Shimanami Kaido. Each bridge has a section for cyclists and for pedestrians, and the route has become a popular cycling destination with plenty of campsites and accomodations along the route.

See more Japanese draincovers.

Typical Japanese Landscape 18

Though you will often see images of the Shinkansen hurtling past Mount Fuji, the Shinkansen mostly runs through the heavily populated corridor along the Pacific Coast between Tokyo and Fukuoka.

This was shot in downtown Hiroshima.

Mizunokuni: the Art (inside)

Continuing on the theme of my favorite museum, Mizunokuni, here are a selection of the artworks that can be found inside.

Many provincial museums in Japan have interesting (and expensive) architecture, but contain weak or thin collections. Mizunokuni's collection is large, diverse, and I would guess expensive, though it is hard to discern the connection to water with some of the art!

A lot of the art, like this sculpture, is kinetic. All these little "aquanauts" are moving.

The nicest thing about Mizunokuni is that it is empty most days so you can wander at your leisure and not have to worry about crowds. It is empty because the museum is in the middle of nowhere, with no public transport, and almost no advertising.

This piece on the lower-level is a huge bar of iron immersed in water encased in a clear perspex block that extends from the inside, through the glass wall to the outside.

This final piece is actually a 3D model, set inside a case with a small viewing window to keep the illusion.

Museum 104, or its more common name "Mizunokuni" is open from 9 to 5, Thursdays through Mondays. Entrance 400yen per adult, 200yen for kids.

Mizunokuni is located on Rte 261 along the Gonokawa River, about 25 kilometres upstream from Gotsu. There is a JR station about 2k away at Shikaga.

See outside Mizunokuni

See inside Mizunokuni

A short history of Kirin Beer (1889-1943)

Mizunokuni (inside)

Continuing on from yesterdays post on my favorite museum, today we go inside.

The first room inside the main building is a 4-story deep chamber with a spiral ramp running around the exterior and various openings looking into the space which is a multi-media environment that is a cloud chamber. At the top of the space are chutes and each day lumps of ice are placed in them. As they gradually melt the water falls as "rain" and react with devices on the floor that trigger various lights and sounds.

Just about every aspect of this museum has really nice touches. Even the benches continue with the water theme.

After passing through a couple of galleries we come to the science of water interaction zone, a kind of mini science museum with all kinds of contraptions and devices to explore the properties of water, even a couple of water-powered musical instruments.

At the end of the building is a large dome.

Inside of which is another kinetic light and sound environment with the perfect acoustics of the dome.

Continuously while walking through the museum and grounds the distinction between inside and outside wavers and often lacks a distinct boundary.

It's one place in japan I've found where modern architecture and concrete really feels like it has adopted and adapted to traditional Japanese aesthetics, as with the small garden viewable from the cafe.

Museum 104, or its more common name "Mizunokuni" is open from 9 to 5, Thursdays through Mondays. Entrance 400yen per adult, 200yen for kids.

Mizunokuni is located on Rte 261 along the Gonokawa River, about 25 kilometres upstream from Gotsu. There is a Jr station about 2k away at Shikaga.

See outside Mizunokuni
See the art inside

Mizunokuni (outside)

This is one of my favorite museums in all of Japan. The setting, landscaping and water-scaping, architecture, artworks, and even the lunches in the cafe are all excellent, and yet the place is empty most days.

It's only a few kilometers from where I live, and I drove by it hundreds of times and never went in, presuming it to be overpriced and boring like so many provincial museums.

When I finally made it in I was gobsmacked and have been back many times since.

The museums proper name is Museum 104 (104 degrees being the angle between the 2 hydrogen atoms in a water molecule.... but you knew that already!), but it is known as Mizunokuni, Waterland, and as might be guessed it focusses on the art, and science, of water.

The museum was dersigned by Takano Hiroyuki, and opened in 1997. The main building is meant to represent Noah's Ark resting on Mount Ararat, but to me it looks more like a bridge.

Inside the main building is an interactive area where visitors can explore the properties of water, actually a lot of fun. There is also a lot of art whose relationship to water is tenuous, but interesting anyway.

Mizunokuni is open from 9 to 5, Thur through Mon, entrance 400yen for adults, 200yen for kids.

You can be almost guaranteed to have the place to yourselves if you visit.

Mizunokuni is located on Rte 261 along the Gonokawa River, about 25 kilometres upstream from Gotsu. There is a Jr station about 2k away at Shikaga.

See inside Mizunokuni
See the art inside

Imamiya Shrine, Hamada.

Perched on a narrow spit of high ground sandwiched between the railway line and a main road, the Imamiya Shrine in Hamada looks abandoned.

However, on my last visit there I found a pile of discarded rope and gohei. These shimenawa were strung along either side of the roads in the neighborhood and made the way to the shrine sacred for the annual matsuri.

The head Imamiya shrine is in Kyoto and the enshrined kami are Okuninushi, Ebisu, and Kushinada. Curiously the shrine records here in Hamada say the main enshrined kami is Susano. The little red box on the steps is a vending machine for Omikuji (fortunes).

Inside the main room is a solitary Taiko, a standard feature at most shrines.

Next to the main building is a secondary Inari Shrine.

Kamikaze

Last year 9 wind generators began operating on top of Takanoyama behind Tsunozu and Uyagawa. I was surprised to learn that it was a public works project of the prefecture in partnership with Gotsu City.

Another 12 have now gone up on the beaches at Asari and Kuromatsu, this time erected by a new local company Gotsu Wind Power.

While not the biggest in Japan, with towers of 80 metres and blades of 45 metres, they are pretty impressive close up.

The towers were made in South Korea and the generators are from Germany and Finland.

Japan lags far behind other countries in wind power generation, not because of a lack of wind, but because there is no national grid. There are 10 seperate regional power companies that don't share excess electricity across their borders.

Iwami generates a miniscule amount of hydro-electric power, and most of our electricity comes from the coal powered Misumi power station. There is a nuclear power station on the coast up near Matsue. (built on a fault-line of course!)