Something I enjoy about Japan is that in pretty much every town I go to, however small or out of the way, I can find a little art museum with works by local artists, or sometimes better known ones. Arriving in Numazu I picked up some information at the station, browsed it over lunch at a nearby café, and discovered Mon Museé, a small but very enjoyable museum.
In a residential area of apartment buildings and hospitals about twenty minutes' walk south of the station, it was a little tricky to find, but easy to recognize once I got there by the big painting on the facade. I paid my ¥200 and went inside, and found on the first floor an exhibition of attractive abstract paintings and sculptures, some colorful and lively, some simpler with more subtle patterns, some chiseled and painted directly onto pieces of wood. The exhibition was well organized, with the largest paintings in the most spacious room, so I could admire them from a good distance, instead of only being able to look at them in close-up. In this room there's also a pipe organ which is sometimes used for concerts.
While the first floor holds special temporary exhibitions, upstairs on the second floor you can enjoy a selection from the museum's small permanent collection. There's a good range of of styles in the paintings on display here, with colorful landscapes and still lives, some more modern paintings, and a display case full of beautifully decorated ceramic objects. There's also a reading area where you can sit and browse from shelves of musty-looking books on art and music, mostly in Japanese, but with a few in English.
Something I enjoyed here was the laid-back atmosphere, very different from big-name exhibitions at large museums. There were hardly any visitors, as I went on a weekday, and when I was looking at the special exhibition, one of the few other people there was the artist himself; he spoke capable English, so we chatted for a while about his work and other artists. (I can't guarantee this will happen every time, of course, but it's not the first time I've met the artist at an exhibition at a smaller museum).
At the entrance there's information about other local exhibitions, and a small selection of postcards for sale as souvenirs. I bought one and went on my way, having spent a very enjoyable, relaxing hour at Mon Musée.
