Nagasaki: The American Guilt Trip part 1

An Isle of Art

Nao Shima, 直島, is a pretty renowned island off the coast of Shikoku.

You can get here a number of way, the closest of which departing from Okayama, and taking a ferry on over. But the path that we took, via similar transportation, departed from Takamatsu in Kagawa. 

As the title suggests, this island is renowned for its art. However the art here is a relatively recent addition. Actually this area was on the verge of death, as a community, not a people, and they decided that they needed to reinvent the island to bring people there and to pick up tourism and to keep the culture there, as their young ones kept leaving for busier and busier cities. And thus the idea of art was born, and the community became modern again. 

One of the recommendation I actually have for this place is to rent a bike. Yes they actually have a bus system that can take you around to the sites, but it can be over crowded, especially during tourist season and trust me, I had to sit in front of an implacable squalling child for 10 minutes. I would have taken that 500 yen rental bike in a heartbeat. Save your ears please. You can easily see all the sites in a day and a bike helps to better facilitate that. Not waiting for the bus actually saves you a good bit of time as if the bus is packed full, it will not even stop. 

I would also tell you to come prepared for anything. There are some nice hills to hike here are well as beaches to sunbath on and of course the ocean here is warmer than the Sea of Japan and it was actually really quite pleasant in May. So perhaps you want to bring a bathing suit and some sun block.

Also sadly this time, I have no eats to recommend, as I had no time to go find any eateries. There were quite a few cafes that looked really cute and if I had a second chance I can tell you I know of two I would go eat at: Mino and the Cat Cafe. But I do hear the udon shop here is pretty famous, and it is near Kagawa which is known for the udon. The Wiki travel is actually full of a good number of suggestions. Look toward the Honmura village section. 

One of the most famous pieces of art on the Island is by the same lady who has recently designed a bunch of Louis Vuitton store fronts, and I assume, bags. 

Yeah, that one. Yayoi Kusama. This lady is also responsible for the famous pumpkins prominently featured on a good many of the islands goods. There are exactly two pumpkins on opposite sides of the island, one red with varying sizes of black spots, and the other orange with an equally, if not more interesting pattern. I did not actually get a chance to visit the orange one ( I got too confused about where the museums and exhibits I wanted to see actually were), but the red one is right near the Takamatsu ferry port and you can climb inside of it as many of the young ones were doing. 

All over the island was some interesting string art on building. Here is a elementary school boy in a back back and a little alien. This art was very insistent through out the island, appearing everywhere, in the shapes of plants and leaves and people too. It really seems to follow us everywhere.

A few of the more interesting ones were manipulations of dark and light. Below is one such example with a glass stair case descending downwards from a hole in the ceiling. Above ground, the stair case acesnded into what appeared to be a room on stilts, which I am not really sure if it was essential to understand the meaning of the art or not. The key to this art work was underground though, the stairs descended into a puddle leaving the image to mirror itself and look as if it continued on. The puddle was actually essential to the artwork, or so people would have me believe, so I think I did grasp what the artist was trying to effect.
Another light and dark artwork that is not featured here took place next to a temple. For that one you actually had to make a reservation to go view. You would then return at the appointed time and be lead into a seemingly pitch black room. You are told to keep your hand along the wall so that you can feel your way around. You are then told to have a seat along the back of the wall where a bench had been installed. You would wait for approximately 5 to 10 minutes and then it would become clear as to what was going on. No, no one was robbing you. This was an experimental kind of art. Almost a science. It was more of how the eye works rather than an art. After sitting for well, more than 2 minutes, you begin to see something. But you are not sure if you really see something or if you eyes are so light starved that you are making up things to see to justify your eyes being open. Around 5 minutes you are more sure of yourself. There is a definite rectangle of light. And its foggy?
We actually got to stand up and walk around the exhibit. There was indeed a rectangle of light that was on the entire time. It is a such a low volume that it is imperceptible to eyes that have been so accustomed to daylight for an extended period of time. The foggyness was actually a type of paint,that, when combined with the light gave it a foggy effect also lowering the ease or perceptibly. This was extremely interesting to me and probably my most memorable art piece of the island.

This one was actually an art form of recycling, as well as modernism in style. It was pretty interesting. One of the aspect I thought was more interesting was the wall inside one of the rooms. They played with shapes, where if a segment was subtracted from one area, it was added in a different area. Like if there was a giant pyramid in the room, then perhaps there would be a giant pyramid in the roof acting as a skylight. If the room jutted in, it also jutted out. Also interesting was the floors in the hallways with all their random pieces of 8, their cards, and money from all over the world. And in another room there was a miniature Lady Liberty statue. Even the toilet was odd. And not just Asian-style odd!

And lastly. Probably the most odd, was a completely functioning bath house called 'Yu' (which is the Japanese symbol for bath spelled out in romanji). I think it was just a collection of 1960's American scraps thrown together to make the weirdest Floridian house ever. And the inside is about as weird as the out, though the bath was supposedly exceedingly interesting and beautifully artistic. You can see from this image there is a lady who, at night, lights up like a Las Vegas strip club. Alas, I did not get a chance to go in here either as I had not toiletries on hand and it was rather expensive.

Oh and that 'Bond museum', as in 007. Incredibly weird. It is more like one mans obsession. But it is free so hey I won't tell you not to go!

Ehime

Ehime is one of the four prefectures that make up Shikoku. If you look at the kanji for Shikoku, it is 四国, the first part meaning four, and the latter meaning country. So four countries. Or in this case, prefectures. OK, so I just copied that from the last one. It has been a while ok?

 So here is where we were, Matsuyama 松山, probably the largest city in the prefecture. Also with the most to offer, especially on our power trip through Shikoku. Though I would still love to go back and visit Uwajima!

This is a close up of the area showing Matsuyama. 

So among the things Matsuyama is known for, is what they call the Japanese Machu Picchu according to the Japanese travel books. It was a former mining factory a ways back which was condemned in an accident and never rebuilt. The site for it is rather small but it does offer a beautiful viewpoint of the mountains. The mine was for a prosperous copper vein that they found and were making very good money off of. Still today you can see and even purchase some of the copper ware at the local stores. There even a museum a little ways down the road promoting the copper trade and as well as educating the young ones about minerals and ores. We did go to this museum and I have to admit...I don't think I would recommend it. The actual site is free and less...childish...But still it was a cute thing to do and enjoy.

Next on anyone's list should be to check out the castle. This castle is actually worth going to see. This one is not a reconstruction of its former glory, but is in this case still in its glory. This castle has first has a fun little chair lift up to the castle grounds. There is of course a walk way up, but it is a nice bit of an incline. They actually sell combo tickets for both the ropeway and the castle itself for a decent price. The castle is of course off limits for shoes and they have you remove them at the door and carry them around in a plastic bag about the place in order to protect their beautiful polished wood floors. The castle is certainly smaller than others and with a certain lack of castle grounds, but it is still unique and beautiful and most importantly original. 

And the last, and probably the most important stop you should make here, is to Dogo Onsen. And to some of you, I am sure that sounds familiar exactly not at all, but perhaps when I tell you what it is affiliated with? Ok, the Gibli movie, Spirited Away, used Dogo Onsen as a basis for its movie setting. 

Need some help remembering?

OK, now that we all remember, or realized that we might have missed out on something great, let's move on. This onsen is pretty much in the middle of the city and it is a grandiose affair. It is beautiful. And huge. And is apparently the only public onsen that any emperor in Japan has ever visited let alone frequented. He even had his own rooms at the onsen. To this day, the onsen is still functioning and has people in and out of its doors until late in the evening. Unfortunately I cannot boast that I have had the chance to bathe here as I would simply not have made the last train back to the hotel if I had. I did get to walk all around it and I can tell you there is a little shrine along the side where you can feel just how warm the natural water is.

As you can see, people are coming in and out in the yukatas after a refreshing bath.

Numerous expensive rickshaws just waiting to transport you all around the city for quite a sum!