Naoshima (Art Island) & Osaka

Sunday, October 13, 2024
Naoshima Island, Kagawa, Japan
Monday
Another hot and humid day.
We had an early start since we had to pack and get to to station to catch the 9:23am shinkansen to Okayama, two local trains and then a ferry before we got to our destination Naoshima. We have four nights booked into Benesse House 
A short walk to the local area of Okayama station where we caught local train to Chayamachi and then just across the platform to catch another local train to Uno which is where we catch the ferry to Naoshima
From Uno there are two ferries available one a passenger and one a vehicular. These go from separate jetties about 300m apart.
Luckily we could get a taxi to take us the 400m to buy the tickets for the ferry. While we could have caught a passenger ferry in 30 minutes its terminal was 300m away so we waited 90 minutes in an air conditioned waiting room for the vehicular ferry.
After a twenty five minute crossing where we found the Benesse House courtesy bus waiting.
Benesse house has three accommodation houses we are in Beach close to one Dining room (breakfast and French menu ) whereas they have another Dining room (Benesse House Museum) some 700m away (breakfast and Japanese menu). To make matters worse there was a 300m walk to reception.
Hence we did a lot of walking in the 3 days we were there, mind you they did supply me with a manual wheelchair which helped a lot. (yes Leith pushed.)
Benesse House has a regular shuttle bus which goes around the island every hour which we used a few times.
We had pre-booked evening meals in the 'Western'  restaurant, and the 'Japanese' one which was a shuttle bus ride away.

Our accommodation was a big room overlooking the beach, with Takamatsu in the distance on the island of Shikoku about 12km away.  
Our evening meal was booked at the Japanese, so we caught the 8:00pm shuttle to the Museum building where we had a very good 10-course meal. Time also to have a preview of the museum itself.
When we had finished a Benesse car brought us back to accommodation about 9:30pm.

Tuesday
A hot and humid day.
After a buffet breakfast at our nearby dining room we explored the beach and took photos of the yellow pumpkin as well as some other outdoor sculptures.
Then a walk through the Park museum where we could have a light lunch.
In the afternoon we took the shuttle to Museum building (where we had our meal last night) so we could see it it daylight.
This was a specifically designed building covering at least 3 levels with a number of rooms with modern paintings and sculptures, it also had the restaurant plus an accommodation block. All the walls were concrete panels, which took a bit of getting used to.
Caught the shuttle back about 4:00pm.
A 'French' dinner at our restaurant. This was a degustation meal, very nice but too much food.

Wednesday
Another hot and humid day (30C+ plus 80% humidity)
We arranged a car to take us to the Chichu Museum since there was a bit of walk to the Museum from where the shuttle stopped.
Another architect designed concrete building built inside a hill, I understand the building was the model for MONA in Hobart. This could be true since Chichu opened in 2004 and MONA in 2011. It has three large rooms (and a cafe) which to quote the website
 'Artworks by Claude Monet, James Turrell, and Walter De Maria are on permanent display in this building designed by Tadao Ando'

The Claude Monet room had five of his water lily painting in a large room specifically designed to show them. I wasn't allowed to take photos It was so beautifully proportioned that I spent time just admiring the whole scene.
The Walter De Maria was another large room tiered with a large ball in the middle. David Walsh of MONA would approve.
Finally the the James Turrell room was a sensory deprivation room which I didn't go into, there is a similiar room at MONA.

After lunch at their cafe we managed to arrange a Benesse car to take us to Miyanoura ( the ferry port) just to check whether we could buy the ferry tickets in advance, we were worried about the time between the shuttle getting us there and walking to the ferry. It turned out we couldn't but didn't matter because Benesse House took us down by car in plenty of time.
Leith had time to see and photo another pumpkin, a red one. You could walk inside this one.

Returned to the hotel later afternoon.
Back to the Japanese restaurant for another degustation. We chose one with fewer dishes.

Thursday
You guessed it.. hot and humid.
I spent the morning in the Hiroshi Sugimoto Gallery where I could buy a coffee and a cake.
I spent sometime reading about the architect Sugimoto who is a remarkable man, originally a photographer who the took up architecture. He even has a Wikipedia entry.
Leith took the shuttle to visit the Art House Project . This was a number of traditional houses that were un used and have been turned into 'Art'. She enjoyed walking around  but only went into one house. This was again a sensory experience and entry was by time slots.
Our last dinner was a 'A la Carte' at the French which was very pleasant.

Friday
An early start since we were being picked up at 9:15am to be taken to the ferry by the courtesy car.
No problems catching the ferry as we were in plenty of time, however, found when we got to Uno that we had to walk the 300+ metres to the station. Ah well, good exercise.
No problems with the two local trains to get to Okayama. In fact arrived so early that we had a wait before catching the shinkansen to Osaka.
I spent the time investigating how to get from the shinkansen gate in the Osaka station to our hotel (Marriot Courtyard).
Easy, just ask Dr google and one reads to ' Turn right, walk to the end of the passageway, turn left and at the McDonalds, go out of the station and the you can see the walkway to the hotel'.
And it was all true! Very necessary since all Japanese station have multiple exits.
Our room for the next six nights was on the 12th floor where we had a nice view of the Shinkansens coming into the station. We also overlooked a number of pedestrian ways over roads and trainlines. These were very crowded at peak times.

Saturday
Still hot but lower humidity
We spent the morning at the Museum of Oriental Ceramics which  was fascinating. 
This turned out to be the collection of a Korean businessman who settled in Japan and spent a lifetime collecting Japanese and Korean ceramics. It also has the Ataka Collection of Japanese pottery.

We spent a couple of hours there, I saw a notice that told me that the tall ceramic pieces sit on special earth-quake absorbing cushions, since the area is subjected to minor shakes from time-to-time.
The taxi back was a bit of an adventure, in that there was a 300m walk to the nearest street with traffic, the  reception couldn't order a taxi since they weren't allowed to make outgoing calls.
Eventually, the receptionist persuaded another visitor to call us one, the visitor even waited till it came. She was so kind.
In the afternoon we walked back to the station to book our tickets for the train to take us to Kansai on Thursday plus tickets to visit Kyoto for the day on Tuesday
Dinner was a teppanki at the hotel which we enjoyed.

Sunday
Rain! but still hot
We walked across to station between showers to find out where to catch the train to Kansai since it was a local train, a fair walk it was too.
Lunch at a cafe in the station.
Still raining but luckily we didn't have to wait long for break. It was only about 5 mins to our hotel.
A pasta dinner at the hotel.

Monday
Hot but no rain
Today we had to get ourselves to the St Regis Hotel in Osaka as we had booked a lunch with Petit Chef. This company has developed a projection system that projects images onto your table as well cute images onto your plate (before the food). We went into room within the hotel where about 12 tables which set up with such projection devices. I had first read about this on a cruise ship, however they are in many places around the world including Melbourne, Darwin, Cairns and Surfers Paradise.
 
We started with an Spanish salad so a little Spanish figure came out  and amongst other things fought with a bull, all projected on our plate. As we were in Japan the dialogue was in Japanese so the restaurant took the trouble to have an English speaking waiter translate for us.
Then an Italian ravioli so an Italian figure came out. 
Next course a beef dish prepared by a French Chef and finally a Japanese came out to prepare the dessert.
It was great fun, I urge you to click on this link which is from Youtube and was filmed in London. 
Had a light dinner back at the hotel

Tuesday

We decided to revisit the magnificent Kyoto station  which is only a 20 min train trip away. We have been there many times with SJR but this was one of the few times we were not rushed.
Only a 15min train ride in the shinkansen, we had about five hours which we managed to spend just revisiting the magnificent concourse with the escalators running up about 10 stories.
Had a leisurely lunch at the station before catching the train back.
Dinner back at the hotel. We had explored the restaurants at the station all two levels of them but certainly the hotel was more convenient.

Wednesday
Today we decided to ride the shinkansen to Tokyo, after all we did have the JR pass. This was 6hrs in total with about 90 minutes in Tokyo.
Normally on these trips we have a 'trolley dolly' come down to sell us drinks and snacks but on this train we had to use our phone to click on a QR code which took us to a website which allowed to order, I assume payment using a credit card, a step backwards I think. Mind you the train did have free wi-fi.
About 15 mins out of Tokyo we can see Mt Fuji but one this occasion  we hardly saw it because of the cloud.
It was raining when we got to Tokyo but we didn't need to go outside as we waited for the return trip. We had a 'pretty sandwich' each. I am not sure what was in them but they did look pretty. Leith explored further afield- rooftop garden, Dept store with interesting robot at the lift. not sur what it was doing.

For our last dinner in Osaka we went up the hotel lounge on the 15th floor where we could have a great view as well as some pleasant bar food.

Thursday
Lovely day low humidity
Had a relaxed morning since we didn't have to leave till about 11:00am for a longish walk to catch the local train to the Kansai Airport hotel.
Found the platform, I was most impressed with the platform signage which showed the number of the carriage which was beneath it. I initially thought it was telling me that the train only had three carriages!
About an hour's trip. We arrived mid afternoon.
We had stayed at the Nikko many years ago all I could remember was the walk into it from the station.
It advertised it had three restaurants available, but on this Thursday only one, their 'Japanese' restaurant was open. This was appropriate because tomorrow we fly to Singapore.
We had an excellent two course meal.

More in the next blog

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