Day 13

Today, the Japanese Language Academy traveled to Richmond to view the Japanese gardens at Maymont Park. The day was beautiful and no rain fell as we had feared. We had the opportunity to take a tour along the winding paths and over the glistening water in the garden. There was a great variety of plants although most of the scenery was green to provide a natural look. There were multiple pools of water with beautiful koi. The fish were gold, orange, white, and black with dapples of red and silver. We all crossed a wooden moon bridge which is called such due to its circular reflection mimicking the shape of the moon. There was also a cascading waterfall and a dry riverbed. The purpose of the dry riverbed was to represent the flowing motion of water using only rocks.
After the tour, we had a chance to explore the park in groups. We all took excursions along the rough paths. The paths in Japanese gardens are created as uneven and slightly hard to navigate so that the walker will slow down and take in what’s around them. This allowed us all to slow down and pay attention to the beautiful scenery. A few of us sat on the stepping stones that led across the lake and watched for koi to swim around the lily pads. It was a nice, relaxing day and we all learned a great deal about the culture of the society that we all so love!

Katelyn

Tokyo Market & Virginia Fine Arts Museum

Once we were done with our excursion in Maymont Park’s gorgeous Japanese garden and our picnic, we went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Tokyo Market. We split up into groups, rotated walking to the Tokyo Market to do a bit of shopping, and toured the grandiose Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Tokyo Market was a cute little shop located right off of Cary Street. Inside, a woman greeted us as we hunted for items in the tiny three aisle store.

Inside the Museum, there was a huge multicolored statue on one end of the foyer and on the other, a golden rabbit stretched fully, as if in mid jump. Most students went upstairs to contemplate the renaissance art and modern art exhibits, which were both very well done. Many who saw the contemporary pieces of artwork found them mind blowing. Melanie, Jillian, and Nic found the 1980’s Apocalyptic Era paintings especially stunning, a favorite being The Astronomer by Robert Morris. They found it a bit perplexing, yet profound: the colors, the sculpted body parts in the frame, the big eyeball on the rocket, blending together to create the field of astronomy and its challenges. At the very end of the museum visit, some students went into the gift shop and bought interesting items. Once everyone was done making their purchases, we boarded the bus and came back to Charlottesville. Many people slept on the bus ride back, and the students who stayed awake took embarrassing pictures of the unaware.

Melanie