One of the best ways to get you into this spooky season is a walk around a local cemetery. Cemeteries are often viewed as sombre places to avoid, nothing that a happy traveller would seek out on their next exciting adventure. While they are places of reflection and respect, the dead have a lot to say about the living. Since the dawn of time, the way in which we house, dispose and care for our dead reflects the kind of society, culture and people that lived during that specific time period. While not all of us may love art, or food or sports, what we all have in common is that we will all die. Cemeteries are a place where people or all kinds can come together, for eternity.
One way which I love to explore a city, especially for the first time, is through their works of art. Both historical and right up to modern day. Art teaches us about the culture of people who made it. What was important to them, what moved them, what inspired them? Even what shaped them.
The Hakone Open Air Museum is located in the heart of the Japanese countryside. Nestled in between the green hills and valleys of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. Almost most people who travel to the Hakone region come for the views and the onsens, not the art, I highly recommend making a stop here, trust me, you won’t regret it!