Back in the 1960s, a New York postal worker named Herbert Vogel and his librarian wife, Dorothy, began buying paintings. Using Herb's modest salary, and living off Dorothy's, they picked out affordable pieces that took their fancy — most of them by artists unknown at the time. By the early '90s, their one-bedroom apartment was packed with thousands of works by Chuck Close, Sol LeWitt and other (by then) titans of Minimalist and Conceptual art.
The Vogels eventually donated their collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and their incredible story became the subject of director Megumi Sasaki's award-winning 2008 documentary, "Herb & Dorothy," which was finally shown in Japan in late 2010 and early this year. Don't worry if you missed those limited screenings, though, because Japan's own quirky world of artistic obsessions and gorgeous private collections can be viewed year-round in the art-loving town of Azumino.
Sitting in the middle of Nagano Prefecture with the towering Japan Alps rising up on the western horizon, Azumino is nonetheless conveniently accessible from Tokyo by train (three hours) or bus (three hours to Matsumoto, then a 30-minute train ride).