Naoshima Island -- Day 1

We had a very complicated set of transportation connections this morning to get to our destination, Benesse Art Site on Naoshima Island.  Amazingly, everything worked perfectly for a very smooth trip, getting us there much more easily than I had expected.  First, we took a taxi to the train station, then the bullet train to Okayama, then a car service to Uno Port, then a ferry to Miyanoura Port, then a hotel shuttle ... about 4 hours door-to-door.

We quickly saw that this is a very special place.  I had originally worried that we planned too much time here (3 days), but now I'm already concerned that we planned too little.  First, I should say that the weather is glorious, so we're lucky on that one.  After the horrible smog and heat and humidity of Singapore, we arrived to crisp but sunny and clear weather in Japan.

So what is this place?  It seems to have started with our hotel, which is an integrated hotel and museum complex designed by celebrated architect Tadao Ando around an existing art collection and then expanded by a bunch of site specific installations - some indoors and some outdoors.  The idea is the melding of art, architecture and nature.  Then it expanded into other museums and other site specific installations on this island, then others on other islands, and now it is a whole bunch of art in the region.  Some of it is hidden and almost like a treasure hunt ... you get a map of an area and just see how many of the art objects you can find (David/Fran ... reminds us of the Bienalle already).

The hotel is separated into 4 separate parts.  Two are down the road for us - Beach and Park.  Two are are at the museum - Museum and Oval.  The Museum rooms are literally in the Museum.  We're in Oval, which is on top of the hill.  This is amusing because you have to take a monorail to get there.  It is self operated, so you just push a button and it comes to get you and hauls you up or down the mountain.  The view from our room is absolutely spectacular.  You get a most amazing view of sea and mountains.  There are only 6 rooms in Oval, so it's pretty special.  In the middle of the Oval is a large decorative infinity pool (I was surprised that there was not an amazing sculpture in the middle of it).  The rooms are a bit dated, having been built in 1992, but the view makes up for a lot.  In fact, one of the coolest things about the rooms is that one whole pane of the window wall can descend into the space below to make it entirely open to the outside.  Sweet!

We spent the afternoon at the Benesse House Museum and then outside looking at some of the sculptures on the grounds.  While there are many interesting ones I will just mention a few. 

-       Sculpture of three men saying "chatter chatter chatter" ... Lenny said "that's what I feel like at a cocktail party".

-       A sculpture about the value of objects showing bits and pieces of local objects - kimonos, tea cups, paper, driftwood - wrapped in lead

-       A painting of a yellow and black boat with a yellow and black boat in front of it that made it feel eerily 3D

-       Giant outdoor teacup to welcome people to the island

We had a terrific dinner at the Japanese restaurant at the hotel.  One of those multi-course meals with lots of tiny plates with many strange looking items ... mainly delicious.

We're back in the room now.  I should note one other strange feature of the room which is the haunted toilet.  It seems to have a mind of its own.  You can just be sitting in the other room, and it will start making some noise on its own.  Of course, it has all those fancy bells and whistles that the Japanese like, but this one also has quite a light show going on.  We met a lady at the welcome cocktail and were discussing the remarkable toilets and she said that she already was thinking of hers as a pet ... it greets her when she arrives in her room.

Donna