Pola Museum of Art

Honestly? Worst part of our Hakone weekend. We walked all the way there, which I would not recommend; there is no pavement and the road is covered in branches. When we got there, we paid 2,200 yen, full price, to enter, but then found out that the outdoor half of the exhibition was closed due to bad weather! The first exhibit we went to had lights flashing on and off, which would have been an interesting way to express something if it wasn't obvious that the artist had only done this to hide the clear flaws in their work; on the rare occasion I got a good look, you could quite definitely see it looks like it was made by a student. The glasswork was nice, as was Monet's exhibit if you are a fan of Monet, but there were two other annoying things. Firstly, there was an exhibit dedicated to an artist who supposedly cared a lot for environmental issues and made art dedicated to that, but another piece of 'art' they had made involved the ceiling being covered in balloons. Balloons deflate quickly enough that they presumably need to be replaced quite frequently... how much unnecessary plastic from someone who supposedly cares about the environment! And then another exhibit used generative AI! Who pays 2,200 yen to see fish balloons designed by a computer using stolen work? Overall, incredibly disappointing experience, and cannot believe I wasted limited time and money here.