🌸 Kyushu, Japan | Yufuin 🌸

Yufuin is a hot spring town, more precisely, it's called Yufu City, Oita Prefecture, Yufuin. It's not very large, with a total walking distance of just twenty to thirty minutes. Within the town, there are art museums, souvenir shops, restaurants, cafes, and a small lake. 🗺️ The itinerary Comic Art Museum ➡️ Yufuin Floral Village ➡️ Yu-no-Kawa Shopping Street ➡️ Kinrin Lake. The advantage of strolling through is that it's quite photogenic, but overall it's not particularly astonishing. Personally, I think the only thing worth seeing is the Comic Art Museum. 🎨 The museum, backed by Mount Yufu, was designed by Kengo Kuma with the theme of "village," integrating the museum with the streets and nature of Yufuin. The exterior wall deliberately uses a century-old craft—"yakisugi" (charred cedar). The outer wall is designed as a huge inverted slope, creating a sense of light and shadow through irregular patching, making the entire building look three-dimensional and light. ⛲️ There are five indoor galleries and one outdoor gallery. The exhibition halls are not large, but the works are stunning. The indoor galleries feature Yayoi Kusama's pumpkin polka dots, "Infinity Net," Kenya Hara's architectural emblem specifically designed for Comic, Tatsuo Miyajima's LED installation "Time Waterfall," Hiroshi Sugimoto's black and white photography series "Seascapes," and Takashi Murakami's "Flower" series. The outdoor gallery displays sculptures by Yoshitomo Nara, Kohei Namekawa, and Mariko Mori. 📷 Due to the inability to take photos in some indoor exhibition halls (for example, Yayoi Kusama's pumpkin polka dots, which are super delicate and dreamy when viewed up close in the dark), the most famous and top check-in spot here is Yoshitomo Nara's large white dog sculpture. 🐩 Ascending to the second floor, a somewhat melancholic-looking white dog comes into view—it's Yoshitomo Nara's "Your Dog." Yoshitomo Nara's creations have always been a dialogue with his childhood self. When we were very young, we must have thought large dogs were enormous, and this big dog was also born from his childhood memories. My daughter was particularly delighted by it and asked me many questions, such as what it was doing here, where its mother was, and if it was unhappy? 🤭 Quite interesting. Let's share some basic information about the museum. ⏰ Opening hours: 9:30-17:30 💤 Closed days: Every other Monday (with temporary closure days, check the official website for details) 💴 Fee: 1500 yen #KeeperOfRomanticLife #KyushuJapan #JapanTravel #JapanOffTheBeatenPath #Yufuin #YufuinOnsen #ComicArtMuseum 🏞️🎨📸