Hakone Open Air Museum

After the Castle we headed to the Hakone Open Air Museum.  It was so nice outside we really wanted an outdoor activity and this is what we came up with.

There are two staircases in the pictures below.  First you go down the staircase inside the black box then walk through a short weird dark bumpy hallway to come back up the light staircase enclosed in glass.  I'm not sure what the artist was going for, but the kids sure loved to run up and down the stairs over and over again for about fifteen minutes while I sat down and fed Beatrix.

There were a few fun artsy play structures for the kids.  Both were twelve and under so I'm glad we went before Tucker officially became a teenager.

The stained glass tower was my favorite.  I could have spent a lot more time taking pictures there but it was crowded and there was a single file line going up and down so whenever I stopped to take a picture the line stopped.

The Picasso area was interesting.  I think Picasso was an amazing artist but I really don't think a lot of his work is good at all.  Picasso said, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."  I thought that sounded about right.  He should have not wasted so much time trying to paint like a child, in my opinion.

The rest of the artwork was pretty much statues of naked or partially naked people.  We don't really like that sort of thing and just walked past much of the museum.  Again, it probably wasn't worth the drive out there, but because we did the castle on the same day it wasn't so bad.  The kids loved the play places though and were happy we went.