Pola Museum of Art

From the road you barely see the Pola Museum of Art. The building is held to 8 meters above ground, with most of it set into the slope at Sengokuhara among beech and himeshara trees, and daylight falls through an atrium that runs from the second basement up to the second floor. It opened in 2002 to show what Suzuki Tsuneshi, second-generation head of the Pola cosmetics company, collected over some 40 years: Impressionist and 20th-century Western painting with Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh and Picasso, Leonard Foujita, Japanese Western-style painting, glass and historic cosmetic tools. Exhibitions rotate, so the works on show change between visits, and only some may be photographed. Leave time for the forest trail outside, about one kilometer and 40 minutes, with sculptures among the trees. Adults pay 2,200 yen; junior high students and younger get in free. Getting here takes some planning: the direct bus from Hakone-Yumoto was cut in 2024, so most visitors ride the Hakone Tozan train to Gora and take the free museum shuttle, eight minutes, about every 30 minutes. The Hakone Open-Air Museum is one stop before Gora, so the two fit into one day.