It was a long trek to the Pola Museum of Art at Hakone. The JR Tokai line from Yokohama to Odawara took an hour, and then from Odawara I took a train to Hakone Yomoto Station before catching the Hakone Tozan Railway to Gora. From Gora, it is a bus ride to the Pola Art Museum. End to end 3 hours. It was a wet and cold day to boot.
The Odwara station, like all the train stations in Japan, has a variety of shops mostly selling bento boxes, local produce, sweets - products that can be consumed during the train journey. Here I purchased a Hakone Pass, and a young male employee who spoke English translated for me. In addition, he gave me a pair of chopsticks as souvenir.
The route to Gora passed through the country side. A large number of blooming cherry blossoms lined the way. The Hakone Tozan Railway is the only mountain railway in Japan and climbs over 500m to Gora. For the first time, I experienced switchbacks, where the driver and the conductor changed shifts and the train switched to reversed travel direction. Due to the dismal weather, the mountain scenery failed to sparkle. Besides, the train was packed and there were many visitors taking selfies or photos of each other. A couple beside me was shooting a video of their baby, all the way, making a big fuss of the baby. From their speech, I gathered that they came from Korea. Quite a noisy bunch really.
Finally, on arrival at Gora, I was greeted by a sleepy village, drenched in a blanket of rain. Not much happening here, so it was a quick dash for the bus stop to take me to the Pola Museum. A couple from Spain was covered in see through rain wear and was told to have it removed by the bus driver. Quite right too because the wetness of their rain wear would have soaked the seats.
Gora station is really just a small station, with two platforms. Most visitors who get off at Gora have other plans - visiting onsens and Gora Park. Gora Park is a French styled landscape park and since I come from Europe, I gave it a miss. Overall, on a dull and dreary day, going out and about was not an uplifting experience. Even the cherry blossoms looked dejected in the rain. Or perhaps that is part of the charm of a rain-soaked country side?
The Pola Art Museum is probably one of the most underrated small museums. There was a fabulous collection of Degas, Matisse and a few Renoirs. It also had Monet's Water Lily Pond. For a small museum, the quality of the collection was first rate. By far the painting that capture my imagination on the day was Renoir's Girl in a Lace Hat.
Finally it was time to go. It was snowing by that time. The Museum very thoughtfully provided umbrellas for their patrons to use. Obviously they are not to be taken home, but the fact that in Japan, public property like these are not appropriated by private individuals is genuinely a humbling experience.
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| Odawara Station |
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| En route to Gora |
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| Gora |
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| Gora station |
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| Approach to Pola Art Museum |
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| Light and space, Pola Art Museum |
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| Modern architecture, Pola Art Museum |
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| Cafe, Pola Art Museum |
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| Renoir's Girl in a Lace Hat |
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| Bus station outside Pola Art Museum |
