Naoshima

On a fairly murky, but humid Japanese summer day, we jumped on a ferry and popped over to Naoshima - the art island! The island is covered with statues and art installations - this pumpkin chap is particular popular.

The view of lots of tiny islands was lovely, but look at the horrible weather! 

Our first stop was Bennesse House. An art gallery full of works by many great artists. The building itself was really impressive - I think it may now be my dream home.

You see the yellow and black boats in the picture above? This is the view from the gallery! And check out the picture below. The gallery was really good and mixing what's real and what isn't.

We decided to take a little wander along the beach, even though it was so grey! The sea is not very inviting..

I made some friends...

And we visited this cool onsen/art gallery combo. A pretty cool experience.

The island was cool. I particularly enjoyed the idea of the Art House Project. Some Japanese artists had restored traditional Japanese houses and placed installations inside. It was a great idea, but the outcome was kinda so so I thought. One installation literally had us walk into a pitch black room, wait for about 10 minutes, and TA-DA, your eyes adjust to the dark! Is this art? I didn't think so...

However, the best part was that we were joined by Rachel and Souley! We headed back to Okayama and spent the evening eating some amazing sushi in a great little sushi restaurant.　楽しかった！