Noashima Island and Himeji Castle

Alec at the Uno ferry dock

outside the town public bath that has been turned into an art project

We had heard  about an "art island" located off  the larger island of Shikoku in the Inland Sea and thought it was a good time to check it out.  Naoshima is a tiny island with two small fishing communities.  The modernist architect Takao Ando has developed part of the island into several unbelievably beautiful museums and art spaces while several other artists have taken old, dilapidated buildings in Honmura, one of the two small towns on the island, and turned them into art house projects.  The whole island can be traversed in a day by foot.  http://wikitravel.org/en/Naoshima

Yoyoi Kusama's Pumpkin 

 The super rich and wealthy stay at Benesse House which is part of the museum complex and stunning in itself.  The riff raff like us stay in comparably cheap digs in town.  We stayed in a family run ryokan or pension.  It was fine, but you had to follow the mama-san's rules.  Dinner was at 5:30 sharp and she would yell for you to come and even open the sliding door to our room to say hurry up or no food.  The same for 7 a.m. breakfast which did not include tea or hot coffee, but had plenty of cabbage, tofu, rice and miso soup.

 We had heard that the island was a "heavenly" experience and while it wasn't as charming as we expected it grew on us.  I guess part of the problem was the steady rain.  We definitely didn't need our bathing suits.  In the end, we got the full art experience, just not the sun.  The nice thing that we all noted was that each space was minimal so you never felt overloaded or tired by the works.

they love lady liberty here

town police stopping all traffic including bikes to say be careful and hand out sponges and chewing gum (if only Boston had these kinds of issues)

town home with hot water heater on roof

 I have to say that it was the architecture built in and among the hillsides that was the most inspiring to me.  Each space fit and related to it's surroundings perfectly.  Unfortunately, none of my pics do the art or the space justice.  You can see it better on the link above.

peeking inside doorway in Honmura-everyday art

On the way home from Naoshima we stopped at Himeji Castle and zoo.  The castle was undergoing renovations so we didn't get to tour it in it's entirety, but luckily Alec was able to continue to add to his stockpile of Japanese weapons.

castle moat

castle walls

stopped the boys from spray painting the walls in the nick of time

Japanese zoos are pretty old school and depressing as noted by this green hyper-chlorinated polar bear.

global warming?

Samurai Alec

modern samurai with real sword from grandma and shuriken