Naoshima – The Island of Art

Our skin was still prune-like as we hopped off the train and boarded the ferry to Naoshima. After 3 days of soaking in baths we were now ready to bathe our eyes in art on this tiny island between Honshu and Shikoku.

The sun was starting to set as we cast off from the Takamatsu ferry port and as we pushed away from land we knew that the next 36 hours would be a treat!

Arriving with such a beautiful sunset painted a picturesque view of the world’s longest train/auto bridge that was silouetted in the distance.

With the sun nearly down we jumped almost directly from the boat to the bus and onward to our guesthouse… which was almost like a homestay. We were greeted by our wonderful host Chizuru-san and she got us settled over some tea and Japanese conversation. Communication was a little difficult, but it was great for us to practice!

That night we had a fantastic dinner at a little place nearby that served excellent “roll-it-yourself” daikon rolls and pan-fried octopus… delicious. Fed and to bed!

Got up early the next morning to start the sight seeing without delay. We rented bikes and headed out to explore the island and is numerous artistic attractions. I’ll let the pictures fo the talking, but here is a list of some of the places we saw:

Art House Project
Benesse Art Park
Chichu Museum
“I Love Sento” – Naoshima Sento

Keep in mind that many of these places restricted photos so you might be best off looking up the synopsis and imagery yourself. Anyways, here is some of the cool stuff we saw…

We also saw some really beautiful vistas from in and around the island as we biked along on this beautiful autumn day.

Naturally the day was not complete without a proper bathing and feed. Only this time we did it Naoshima-style… ART SENTO! Again, I’ll let pictures be the words… definitely not a traditional sento by any means, but oooooh sooooo cooool!

The night capped with a return visit to the restaurant from the night before and an early to bed in prep for 2 nights in Tokyo!