Japanese Masterpieces Saved by Fenollosa

Some art pieces were sold for very small prices.

When I woke up in the morning, it took some time to locate my feet and hands.

普段なら手は腕の後にあります。（笑）

本当に足と手を見つけるのに時間を掛かってしまいましたか。ちょっと面白い文章です。^^

I hurried downstairs to the restaurant for breakfast.

I love buffet style breakfasts.

The sight of the lined up dishes, several kinds of soup and beverages makes me feel like I am pampered.

"The sight of lining dishes" struck me as somewhat odd, so I looked it up a bit. It seems that "lining a dish" is decorating it with stripes of some ingredient, like lettuce or bacon (as in "lettuce-lined dish").

If you refer to the sight of all the rows of neatly arranged dishes, I think "lined up dishes" would be the right choice.

There are many museums in Ueno.

"~seum" is a very common Latin suffix for some place names, as in "coliseum"/"colosseum".

On the way, a poster of a exhibition drew my attention.

I read "Japanese Masterpieces from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston", published by the Tokyo National Museum.

I'd normally only drop the "published by the" in a formal citation. For instance, like this:

According to Mr. X, "...this and that..." (1).

(1): "Japanese Masterpices from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston". Tokyo National Museum, 20XX, ISBN (...).

They destroyed many temples and buddhist artwork that should have been registered as national treasures.

Some pieces of art were sold for very small prices.

"Pieces of art" seems to be more popular than "art pieces", according to Google.

In midst of these events, an American professor at Tokyo University played a great role in saving a lot of Buddhist artifacts.

Since we're talking about many similar incidents, I think it would be better to use "in amid of these events" (in plural). I think "in midst of" is more commonly used, though.

Now the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston owns his large collection of Japanese art.

As the formal name of an institution, it should be capitalized (except for the "of" prepositions). I'm not sure whether it should be "of Boston" or "at Boston", though.

I liked "Miroku, the Bodhisattva of the Future" and "Dragon and Clouds" the best.

"To love X the best" feels a bit strange. If you love something, you like it so much you can't really compare it with anything else.

However, you can "like" things in several degrees, so you can like some things more than others.

By the way, if you'd like to search for examples, Google can also help. If you search for '"I liked" * "the best"' (without the single quotes, but with the double quotes) you'll find sentences that start with "I liked" and end with "the best". I've tried with '"I loved" * "the best"' and I couldn't really find any examples such as yours. Here:

https://www.google.es/search?q=%22I+liked%22+*+%22the+best%22

It was a good day for my eyes, stomach and soul.

Normally, "and" only comes before the last item in an enumeration.

Did you repeat "and" on purpose for emphasis? It can be used that way as well.

I couldn't sleep well maybe because of the poor air conditioning in the hotel room.

We always call エアコン "air conditioning."

I changed "of" to "in" because the air conditioning machine was actually inside the hotel room (and so were you!) English prepositions are very difficult sometimes.

I hurried to the downstair restaurant for breakfast.

Bluezio's correction is good, another way to say it is:

"I hurried to the downstairs restaurant"

This may have been your meaning. It means "the restaurant that is downstairs" So, the whole place is "the downstairs restaurant."

I love buffet style breakfast.

"Breakfast" is also okay and sounds natural but, there's a small difference. Look at this example:

"I love action movies."
"I love any action movie with Bruce Willis."

"Movies" with an "s" talks more about all movies or just movies in general.

On the way, a poster of an exhibition drew my attention.

Remember, too, that "a" comes before consonants (b,c,k,j,k, etc...) and "an" comes before vowels (a,e,i,o,u) so "an" exhibition because it starts with "e."

It said "Japanese Masterpieces from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston," presented by Tokyo National Museum.

Since you're talking about what's on the poster, you use "it said" (or "it says" for present). It's strange, but it's like the poster is talking to you. It's true that you "read" the poster, but we use "it said"

"Published by" is good here, but that's mostly for books or movies. For an art exhibition or a show (like Lion King or Phantom of the Opera), you can use "presented by" or "sponsored by"

Both have the meaning of "hosting" or "paying for"

During the Meiji restoration, the Meiji government had a separation policy for Buddhism and Shintoism.

Again, prepositions in English are weird and difficult. You can also use "concerning" which means "about (Buddhism and Shintoism)"

They destroyed many temples and Buddhist artwork that should have been registered as national treasures.

Since Buddhism is an official religion, it should be capitalized, like Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Shinto, etc...

Some arts were sold for very small prices.

Haha, everyone's got a different opinion on this one (that's because English is crazy). My personal recommendation would be:

"Some were sold for very small prices."

This is the easiest way, we know you mean "temples and Buddhist artwork" because the sentences before said it already. Or, you could use "Buddhist artwork" again if you want to have a clear meaning.

"Some Buddhist artwork was sold for very small prices."

Amid these events, an American professor at Tokyo University played a great role in saving a lot of Buddhist artifacts.

This is the other way that bluezio was talking about. I think this sounds pretty natural. "In the midst of these events" is also good.

We use "these events" because many different events happened rather than one single one.

Now the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston owns his large collection of Japanese art.

Many museums use "at" or "of" for their names, but this museum calls itself "the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston" with a comma. Some colleges and libraries and such will do this. Like the California college, UCLA, which is called the "University of California, Los Angeles"

Maybe they think it sounds nice? Not sure...

You can see some masterpieces at this exhibition.

Hmmmm...I want to help with prepositions. Maybe I'll write a lang-8 entry to help my Japanese-speaking friends with prepositions. It would be too long in the comments here.

For this sentence, use "at" because it's happening "at" a place. When you have an event, it happens "at" somewhere.

In front of the statue, I felt calm, tranquil.

Tranquil is a state of being or emotion, like "happy" "hungry" "sad"

Tranquility is a noun, a thing. "This forest is full of tranquility." "Tranquility is an important part of life." etc...

It was a good day for my eyes, my stomach and my soul.

Like bluezio said, in English we can repeat things for emphasis. So here's another way to do the sentence if you want to emphasize.