Naoshima Island, Shikoku, Japan
Thursday, November 25, 2010
The next morning we were headed to Naoshima, an inland island home to some beautiful buildings and art projects by some of our favorite architects and artists. We thought we would treat ourselves and stay somewhere a little different so we opted for some beach side Pao Tents at Tsutsuji-so, just a short walk from the main museums. The Pao Tents were amazing and we had one all to ourselves. Upon arrival we were warned about leaving our shoes outside over night as they may be eaten by raccoon dogs. So we kept our shoes on the inside, sort of thinking we wouldn't bump into one of these raccoons! We headed straight to the Chichu Museum designed by Tadao Ando and studied heavily by us in our final year, not to sound like geeky architect students but, the space was amazing, all that gibberish our tutors spouted finally materialised and we were in dub founded silence, apart from the odd "ooh, wow" The next museum, also designed by Tadao Ando was the Bennese House Museum, also a restaurant and hotel (fancy) so we thought after a stroll around the gallery we would grab some food and head back to our tent, little did we know that after sun down everything seemed to become for "Hotel Guests Only" and closed
! With buses running every hour we decided to walk home along the coast in the dark to the next bus stop closest to town. So walking by torch light may seem fine, but not when you catch the glimpse of two eyes staring at you, yes, our first Raccoon spotting "That is a full on raccoon", and he wasn't moving, so being girls we screamed and ran! We eventually got the bus to town to try and find the only restaurant open until 9pm, after considering eating crisps from the campsite shop for dinner. The restaurant was impossible to find on foot, we needed a car, and everything, the only shop on the island, was closing. No buses due for ages we decided to get the torches out and walk it...not a great idea. Quite away along the coastal road and darkness both in front and behind us we catch more eye reflections in our torch light but this time its bigger, its a wild boar! no idea what to do, if we run back there is a ghost town, is we run forward we run towards the boar, so we chose the town and the boar ran the other way!
We got the only lady awake in the town to help us read the bus timetable and finally got back to our campsite and ate soup from a can (comes hot out the vending machines here) for dinner...mmmmm, yummy! a few more raccoons on the trips to the bathroom and we finally slept!
The next morning and we woke hungry, but no food in sight, apart from soup in a can, we headed further into town for our first curry breakfast! We then completed the Art House Project (converted houses turned into art spaces including art installations by James Turrell where you sit in the dark and the art reveals itself to you once your eyes have adjusted) After that another Ando Building the Lee Ufan Museum then bank on the mainland before darkness arrived!
