Japan 18: Art island, eh? Maybe VR is better suited for exploring art islands.

Naoshima is billed as art island.  This morning, I decided on a path to walk around the island, hitting the art installations along the way.  First, I walked down near the beach portion of my hotel, taking pictures of the art.



There were only a few pieces but they were nice enough.  Then, I walked northeast towards a small village.  It was about a thirty minute walk.  Upon entering town, I saw an art structure, which served as a bike rack.


Spread across the village are art houses.  The artist takes an empty house and creates art with it.  Most were completely ridiculous.  One, for example, had you sitting in a pitch black room, and there was apparently a small light at the end.  As your eyes adjust, you are supposed to see the light a bit brighter.  I didn't know to wear my glasses, however, so I saw nothing.  One had just a rock in the garden and a few flowers on a mat in a small room.



The one I enjoyed the most had air conditioning, in a dark room, with a small pool.  The pool had numbers of different colors lit up.  The numbers were counting upward, from one to nine and then back to one again, like a stopwatch in reverse.  They were all moving at different speeds.  I took a picture and then a short, bad video.

Others were clearly inspired to try their hand at art themselves, as I saw two young women painting with an easel in the village.



Next, I walked southwest to see the two major museums of the island.



The first museum was the biggest ripoff I have ever experienced when it comes to museums, the Lee Ufan "museum."  For $10, you got to see 3 rooms with mostly nothing in it, along with a small corridor.  The outside had showed promise, but it is absolutely ridiculous that they had the nerve to call themselves a museum and charge such a price.



The next museum was declared online to be one of the best contemporary museums in the world.  It had a price of $20 and was a little better.  The architecture, again, was fairly interesting, and again, like Myst.  There were five Monet paintings in a white room.  For the white room, they made you put on tiny slippers, that were a few sizes too small for my feet.

Two exhibits that I was unable to take pictures of, were ok.  One had you walk up steps and into a light blue room.  When you turned around, you saw neon lights above the doorway, and you saw the yellow or orange light from the outside.  The other was steps and then a big, black ball, with large chimes like objects on the white walls.



Here are the two I couldn't take pictures of, from http://www.aktionsart.org/blogposts/2013/10/12/interior-study-chichu-art-museum:



As I left this museum, I gave some thought to its worth.  Clearly, money was spent on architecture and giving these places a unique feel.  I couldn't help but think back to Myst, or more relevant, the developer's newest creation, Obduction.  What makes it more relevant is that it is virtual reality headset compatible.  You could use one of the new VR devices and look around inside the game.  So, instead of having a tiny museum that you could walk through in five minutes, you have whole worlds to explore, as well as dozens of hours of puzzles to solve and story to follow.  The detail in today's games combined with the ability to look around as if you are there, kind of makes these kind of museums a bit outdated.



Courtesy of http://www.onlysp.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Obduction_02.jpg , http://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20160909130145_1.jpg ,
http://adventures-index9.blogspot.jp/2015/06/quern-undying-thoughts-screenshots.html

I continued walking east, back to the port that I had walked to yesterday.  I found a beautiful roof tile along the way, as well as a flower.



It was time for an early dinner.  Despite Google showing places open, the only place that I could find was a coffee shop.  Luckily, they had a small food menu.



I decided that I should try to enjoy the water surrounding the island.  I didn't go in much further than my knees, but the water was incredibly calm and serene.



On my way back to the hotel, I bumped into my friend, the cat.



I did my laundry, and then decided to finally view the hotel's museum, after hours.  The museum was small, but had some cute pieces.



Tomorrow, I head off of the island and go to Iya Valley.  A recent search showed me something new that intrigues me, in the area.  It will be a lot of driving, but I may either head straight there tomorrow, or simply go to the ryokan and wait for the next day.

Japan 17: The canal and Myst, Naoshima Island

I left early this morning to make sure I arrived in Kurashiki right in time for the museums to open.  When I got off the train, I immediately noticed just how loud it was.  As I approached the canal area, the sound was at its worst.  I assume it is cicadas.  I took this short video just to illustrate how loud they were.

First, I went to the Museum of Folkcraft.  It was expensive, but very small and mostly unimpressive.



The Ohara Museum of Art was next.  The first building was of a decent size, and there were two other buildings nearby.  Photography wasn't allowed in most of the exhibits.

Here were some that I liked.



I could not take pictures of my two favorites.  One was a Picasso.  I ended up finding postcards of them in the gift shop.  The one on the right looked much better in the larger, real life version.



One room of the museum was dedicated to "Annunciation."  It was a typical Jesus picture to me.  On the wall, it explained that while founding the museum, one of its creators was abroad in France and fell in love with it.  The other creators fell in love with it too.  I found it again, in the gift shop, but did not purchase it myself.



I peaked into the four roomed Japan Rural Toy Museum.  I didn't bother, since it was only four rooms.  The gift shop was nice though.



I spent time browsing the local pottery shops.  In one shop, a sign explained that the pottery absorbed alcohol, making it shinier.  It had to do with the surface being unglazed.  They also said that it made alcoholic drinks taste better.  The town is known for its Bizen pottery.  I took a picture of one of the shopkeepers.



Afterwards, I went back to my hotel, took two trains and a ferry, and arrived at my next destination, Naoshima Island.  This island has been greatly influenced by a company that decided to set up shop and create art all over the island.  It is known for a few pumpkins.



I am staying above one of the museums.  When I read online that you had to take a monorail to some of the rooms, I knew I had to try to get in there.  If the monorail was at the top while you were at the bottom, you would have to press a button to call it over.  The monorail is very, very slow.  The air conditioning makes it a joy to ride, however!

Viewing this area of the hotel reminded me very much of an old adventure computer game named Myst.  Myst helped sell the idea of the cd-rom drive by having lifelike imagery on beautiful islands.  You'd explore empty, museumlike structures, working out puzzles.  There are only six rooms to this complex, which adds to the isolated look.

The six rooms are those blue doors surrounding this pool

If you don't want to wait for the monorail, you could always walk

There is a path that leads onto the top of the structure, which had some great views.



When I was planning the trip, Grant asked if I wanted to make reservations at the hotel's restaurants for dinner, as there are no other places relatively close by to the hotel.  I did not give this much thought, and said yes.  When I arrived, they wanted me to choose a menu, out of three.  Two of the choices had fish, with the one remaining being all vegetarian.  It was a very expensive nine course meal.  I have never had a nine course meal before.

I canceled my second night's reservations due to the cost.  I tend to feel very uncomfortable at expensive restaurants, and I am not much of a foodie.  I have been mostly eating $3-8 bowls of beef and rice or noodles this trip.  Since it was last minute, I kept the reservation for the night, deciding to see what it was like.  I mentioned that I wasn't crazy about eating tofu, as soy is not so great on the stomach, and I try to avoid it when I can.  In response, they gave me a huge list of food types and asked me to label which ones I did not want.  I crossed off all seafood, tofu, and alcohol.  Once in the room, I received a phone call, asking if I could have alcohol if it was made in the meal(rather than the drink).  I said yes, as long as it was burned off in the process.  I did not get the impression that she understood me.

At the dinner table was a list of all the foods that would be served to me.  I decided to skip the last course, as my stomach doesn't do too well with fruits, and I wasn't sure if the alcohol would have been burned off somehow, as I didn't know if they'd be cooking the fruit.  I also know nothing about cooking, and I'd rather not have alcohol.  Here are the pictures of every dish served, in order, as shown on the menu.  I tried and ate almost everything, aside from potatoes, which included the jelly like dish that was said to be made of potatoes, and seaweed.



After dinner, I decided to walk to the port.  I was warned by the hotel's front desk, that breakfast was small.  There was a 7-11 near the port, so I figured I would pick up some snacks just in case.  The walk took about an hour.  I took the last bus of the night from the port to its final stop, which was a fifteen minute walk from my part of the hotel



Right before the last curve in the road, there was a sign indicating a shortcut up some steps.  I decided to go this route and almost immediately ran into a cat.  It did not seem disturbed in the slightest by me or my noisy 7-11 bag.



I rode up the monorail and went back to my room for the night.  One of the perks of this hotel is that you get free access to their small museum and only hotel guests can go inside from 9-11 PM.  I plan to do it tomorrow, as I am way too tired tonight!

View from the monorail front window while heading up