Last of Japan, first of Korea

Robin and Michele took off on Tuesday, and so I had Wednesday to do a little more exploring in Tokyo.

I spent the day at the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art, which has a pretty nice collection of Western art and Japanese art dating from the 20th century on. I particularly liked this Braque.

Here are a couple of pieces by Japanese artists. This is Kazuma Oda in 1916 contrasting s new skyscraper with the traditional Japan.

On the other hand, here is a screen by Kokei Kobayashi that celebrates a Western import, corn, in a traditional Japanese medium.

I also visited the Tokyo Craft Museum which had a special exhibition on celadon pottery which had some amazing modern craftsmanship as well as some quite ancient pieces. There were three vases in essentially the same shape, one from the 13th century and two modern reinterpretations; they are nearly identical but I kind of liked the old one best; it had just a bit of variation in glaze that seemed more natural. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed so no pix.

I wrapped up the day with a final sushi meal. By popular demand (i.e. one comment) here's a picture (by the way, this cost $15 - not bad!

Up early tomorrow for flight to Seoul.