In the end of our journey we had 3 days reserved for the art island of Naoshima (forming a group of art islands with Teshima and 7 others in the Inland Sea).

We stayed in the Benesse House Hotel on the island which has pro and cons. The pro is that you are there and central – the con… well it’s rather expensive and not our style of people . Should we ever go back I guess we would stay in one of the surrounding cities and take the morning / evening ferries, but who knows?

Getting to the island is simple

An evening approach

in calm waters

The 1st officer keeps watch

and lookout

interesting sky – we expected rain, it just got warmer

And children have fun with well known games

When you enter the guest rooms in the hotel this statue always gave me the creeps as it was the first thing to see after the door…

In general don’t expect too many pictures of the art inside as they were very strict about this (not allowing it with tripod, for commercial, etc.)

Let’s say they have a very interesting architecture (Tadao Ando did most things) and style

It’s all very cool and minimalistic

Buildings as art

With nice sculptures

like grass swinging in the wind

more art…

Just impressions

of style

View through our window shade into the garden

Another attempt

As supplies were sparse we headed to the main city (tiny…) to get some water, drinks, etc.

To our surprise the temple was very nice

With nice figures

and guardians

Yes, this one too…

As we had a bit of time and now a proper supply of matches Ursi was enjoying a cigar at the pier

Quite and unusual sight in Japan…

Our station

With the omni-present Japanese soft-boiled egg (already salted inside)

Very peaceful indeed

The pumpkin is quite well known

Maggots!

big ones…

From the inside

He was obviously enjoying himself

And this guy had an early dinner…

Well, art is all around you

As are jelly-fish

We have never ever seen so many of them before

View from our balcony over the sea to Takamatsu

Art excursions

garden art…

burnt wood

I loved the colour contrasts

A recycled building

The public baths are an art project in themselves

After the dinner was too expensive for what it actually was the first night, we decided to go to an outside place on the 2nd evening… Good choice! Grill your own…

Horse meat tartar with egg yolk – yummy!

Well, this is how it looks before

Clams

Beef, pork and squid

Afterwards some digestion walk along the harbour meeting old friends

friends?

No swimming…

Puffer fish…

Art installations everywhere

And the well known pumpkin next to the hotel

rather big, not as big as the red one

Here comes the dark force…

Hmmm – sceptical looks as reflection

In the evening we opted for the hotel restaurant once more and this time everything was great

sake glasses

the starters

Yummy!

With the sunset reflection in the pictures

Salty Custard

Green pea bun glazed with sauce

Cooked fish

Some sample Kaiseki menus

And these one as well…

From Naoshima the island of Teshima is just a small boat trip away, yet a totally different, even more peaceful world of its own.

The temple was stunning with the bent stairs (done by the roots of the tree)

And art, of course

Water outlet

Natural clear spring water – very mineralic

And a wonderful eating place for a perfect lunch. They really outdid themselves

And the cedar tiles

Just look closely where the engine is supposed to be – 50 cm³ instead of 1000 A small downsized version of a chopper…

The way back

on a speed boat

All the inland islands very used heavily for industry with all the nasty by-products. Now they try to get rid of everything and convert it – but this takes ages…

Sunset with the bridge through some rocks

Modern Art I

Modern Art II

An installation

My interpretation of another installation

And one more…

After being filled with so much art saying good-bye was not easy but we had to get to Tokyo. So we took the Marine liner once more

That’s the train…

And this time paid the extra fare for 1st class as this means the upper part of the car

Which means you actually see something as the lower part is behind a wall… And if you travel over the longest bridge in the world (9.4 km) than it really is worth seeing.

It is really high up and a bit eerie feeling being some 40 m above ground in a train.

 

Everything looks really small down there…

This gives you some impression

And again Japanese – reading manga online

This video might give you some more impressions

 

And another example of English gibberish

At least we saw the real Fuji as well on the way north…