We started with a lecture by Professor Werner Sollors about “Lafcadio Hearn’s Japan”.  Hearn (1850-1904) was a journalist who visited Japan and fell in love with it, stayed and married (arranged) a Japanese woman, and wrote many books about Japan, with a heavy emphasis on supernatural/ghost stories and Japanese folklore.  He took the name Yakumo Koizumi after he was naturalized.

Although we landed at the port of Sakaiminato, we took buses about an hour to Matsue.  We could choose to go to the Matsue Castle or to the Samurai Quarter.  Tom and I chose the Samurai Quarter because it included the Lafcardio Hearn Museum and the Samurai home where he lived.  The garden, though quite small, was very impressive.  Next to his home was a museum with beautiful contemporary pottery, and a second Samurai home (of Buke Yashiki).

Lunch was at a local beer house where we could cook our own vegetables and beef on a burner (one burner for four people).

Another 45-minute drive took us to the Adachi Museum of Art that is known for its superb and extensive Japanese dry-landscape garden.  The garden is named the best garden in Japan since 2003 by the “Journal of Japanese Gardening”.  We couldn’t enter the gardens but could see them from most of the museum windows.  The art collection has 1,300 of highly regarded paintings produced after the Meiji period.  The majority of the paintings shown were by Yokoyama Taikan.

For our departure, the Sakaiminato Taiko drumming troupe entertained us.  There’s a photo below of Tom with an Australian English teacher who was one of the drummers.

Cheryl

Here are photos of the lecture, lunch, and the Samurai Quarter:

Here are photos of the Adachi Museum and our departure: