Naoshima, is known as the island of art.

It is a mysterious island because only a small amount of Japanese people know of this island; a lot of foreigners come to visit.
I went there for half a day one time, but this time I had a chance to stay there and to fully enjoy it for two nights and three days, therefore I would like to introduce the island to you.

Let me first briefly introduce Naoshima.
Naoshima is Kagawa prefecture’s island, which floats in the Seto Inland Sea between Kagawa prefecture and Okayama prefecture.
Because Naoshima was one of the bases for the Seto Inland foreign trading, it has been a prosperous place back in the days, and is still preserving its old fashioned cities.

Not long ago due to a copper smelting building being built, the island has become prosperous again however northern part of the island has been damaged by the smoke.
But now instead they built a recycling facility that is being considerate of the environment.

The turning point of Naoshima was the advance made by Benesse Corporation (a communicative publishing company).
Originally there was a resort development company that had opened a camping ground in the southern part of the island, but withdrew due to the business worsening. But because the Naoshima mayor and the founder of Benesse both had the same ideas based on wanting to make the island into a cultural place, they decided to buy out vacant land. Due to忠雄Ando’s master plan, they opened a study and training place, a camping ground, and announced a “Naoshima’s cultural plan”. By 1992 a hotel that was in unity with a museum called the- Benesse Museum was opened. And afterwards, the art activity that was being held within the Benesse grounds became profound to Naoshima’s old fashioned houses, alleys, and the sea shore. At first the citizens of the islands had little interest in the activity, but as time went on we seemed to get their understanding. Naoshima is established as the island of art both inside and outside.

Accessing Naoshima
There are two ways of getting to Naoshima, from Okayama prefecture to Takamatsu prefecture.

From Okayama:
It is possible to either take the shikansen or to fly from Tokyo to Okayama.
(There is an airport bus that goes from Okayama airport to Okayama station)
From Okayama station to Naoshima there is a ferry port you will need to go to which is in Uno.
From Okayama station to Uno station you can take the train (JR Uno line), or the bus.
For most of the people that usually take the train, you will need to transfer at 茶屋町 station.
It will take about approximately an hour to get there.

From Uno station to the Uno port, is a about a five minute walk.
The port is right in front of the station, there is a sign that says “For Naoshima”.

From Uno port to Naoshima, there is a ship that is for Miyanoura and Honmura, most people take the one for Miyanoura and there are more running. Time required on the ship is about 20 minutes, and it runs once every one to two hours.

From Takamatsu:
It is possible to either take the shinkaensen or to fly from Tokyo to Takamatsu.

There is an airport bus that runs from Takamatsu airport to Takamatsu station.

If you are taking the train, go to Okayama by shinkansen, then either transfer at Seto-ohashi line or take the overnight train (Sunrise Seto). If you take the overnight train, it will be possible to take the first ferry to Naoshima.
Takamatsu airport is right in front of Takamatsu station, and with a five minute walk you can get to the ferry station.
There is the ship that goes to Naoshima’s Miyaura only once every two to three hours therefore be sure to watch out for departure times.
Time required on the ship is about one hour.

Diary of experiencing the two night and three days in Naoshima
From Tokyo to Naoshima, I took the first plane to Okayama airport, took the airport bus to Okayama station, and from Okayama station I took the Uno line to Uno station.

From Uno station, it took five minutes to the ferry terminal. The terminal had a international feel where there were a lot of foreign tourists.

I took the 11am ferry to Naoshima.
At Uno port you could already feel the artistic atmosphere where there were black sea bream monuments.

This is the Naoshima main entrance; I arrived to Miyaura port in about 20 minutes.
Yayoi Kusama’s art work “Akai kabocha (The red pumpkin)” was there to welcome us. Because it was a tourist spot, it was very festive with a lot of tourists taking pictures.

At Miyaura terminal was named “The station of the sea Naoshima”, the building had won the Pritzker Architecture Prize designed by “SANAA”. Inside were ferry ticket booths, cafes, souvenir shops, and halls.

After taking pictures of the ferry terminal and the red pumpkin, I was starting to get hungry so I made my way to the udon shop.

Where I went to was “Yamamoto Udon shop”. It was a ten minute walk from ferry terminal. It was an udon shop with history, where you can enjoy noodles that are handmade in its traditioonal style (“te-uchi”).

Because it was during lunch time, it was busy with the people of the island. The boiled udon was delicious.

After going back to the ferry terminal, I took the island’s circulatory bus, to go to where I was going to stay for the night.
In Naoshima the city bus “Sunaokun” runs once every hour. It was a bus that connects Miyaura port, Honmura chiku, and Benesse housing, a bus that was very convenient for site seeing. The bus fee was only 100 yen which was nice. (There also is a free bus for those staying at the Benesse house).

After riding the bus for about fifteen minutes; in front of the final bus stop is a “Tsutsuji sou”. Although there are other guest housing other than Benesse house in Naoshima, the reason I chose Tsutsuji sou is because you can stay at a beautiful mobile Mongolian style tent called “Pao” right along the sea shore. Next to Tsutsuji sou is Benesse housing land, where you can see Naoshima’s symbol which isYayoi Kusama’s “Kabocha”.

The Pao was originally located in the Benesse house camp, but has moved here.
There are genuine engravings on the poles. Surrounding the center tables are four beds, and a lot of extra room. There also was a refrigerator, heater, and a wall socket for charging electronics. However keep in mind that the bathroom and sinks are located outside and shared. There seems to be no air conditioning inside of the Pao.

But then again, it is 4000yen for one person per night, a very reasonable price.
Other than the Pao there are Japanese-style cottages, trailer housing, you can enjoy the camping feeling so I recommend it.

After putting my bags at Tsutsuji sou, let’s go continue site seeing Naoshima.
First I decided to go look at the “Ie Project (House project)” in Honmura area. I got to Honmura area a little less than five minutes by bus.

“Ie Project” is focused on taking the old peculiar housing in the Setonai area, creating the houses themselves into art work with the help of artists and architects.
“Ie project” started in 1997, and now currently has 7 houses open to the public.

*Kadoya
*Minami dera
*Kinza
*Goou jinjya
*Ishihashi
*Gokaijyo
*Haisha

Other than the “Kinza” which needs reservation, the other 6 houses can be looked at with the common ticket. The ticket can be bought at the Honmura lounge and archives, Naoshima city tourist information (within the “The station of the sea Naoshima”), etc in the Honmura area.

I would like you to see the details on the art work at on the site, but I will introduce some of the recommended art works.
https://www.benesse-artsite.jp/en/arthouse/index.html

Haisha

A building that was originally a dentist/house was made into artwork. There are many art objects placed inside and outside of the building. You can even meet the statue of liberty. It is chaos.

Goou jinjya

On top of a small mountain there is the Goou jinjya. Together with the repairmen of the temple, the main sanctuary shrine, the outer shrine, the stone hut shrine in the basement was designed. I strongly want you to go inside the basement. You can see that the stone hut and the main sanctuary shrine is connected glass stairs. And the view when coming outside of the stone hut is amazing.

Minami dera

The one I recommend the most is Minami dera. The art work is designed by James Turrell and Tadao Ando. This art work originally had a temple and had emotional support amongst the people, to hold onto that memory this was made. Just one word; I want you to experience James Turrell’s art work.

After finishing looking at the art of Ie Project, I went back to Tsutsuji sou and decided to look around the Benesse housing.
Around Benesse houses, other than the “Kabocha” there are various art work dotted around. This day the weather was fortunate, it was a perfect day for walking around. I would like you to see these in the pictures I took.

The sunset was getting close and I wanted to see it therefore I walked towards the west side of the island to Miyaura port.
Bewtween Benesse house and Miyaura port the west direction is the shortest, there are a lot of ups and downs, and there are little people and cars (The bus is via Honmura area therefore it runs in the east direction). It took about thirty, fourty minutes.

I walked while watching the beautiful scenery of the sun going down. Because the next day was cloudy and I was not able to see the sunset, it was worth the long tiring walk.

After the sunset, I went straight to the Naoshima public bath I♥湯 located at the Miyaura port.

Although the outside does look chaotic, it is actually an art work you can take a bath in. It is of course where the citizens of Naoshima get their vital power, but it provides a cultural exchange between the tourists from outside of Japan and the citizens of Naoshima. Of course both exterior and interior, the bath pictures, bathtubs, mosaic paintings, and even the toilet pottery, was the expression of how Shinro Otake saw the world.

I recommend actually going into the bath.
The outward appearance at night is strange.

The “Akabocha” and “Umino ie Naoshima” at night.
After taking a bath, I rode the bus and went back to Tsutsuji sou.
Going back to the Pao, I must have been tired from the walk, I went to sleep right away.