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!

Kagawa

Kagawa. The one thing you have to do here above all else is eat udon. 

I was actually told that Kagawa is the capital of udon a fact which is recognized throughout Japan, to the point that if you wrote udon-ken (it would typically say kagawa-ken, the prefectural name) on a post card, it will be shipped there. 

So udon. You must eat udon. There are a few well known places that are said to be more famous than others with award winning udon (yes, they give out awards for that). 

There was one I went to, that is said to be the most famous udon shop in all of Kagawa and indeed there was a line already forming (and I was somewhere around 30 or 40!) at 10:30 in the morning when the place did not open until 12. That particular place is usually open only two hours a day, from 12 to 2pm, and they do enough business in that time to be closed the rest of the day. Since this day was part of Golden Week, they took us all by surprise and opened an hour early at 11am. They announced that the first 100 bowls of udon would be the freshest with the best noodles, and afterwards the dishes would be just as good but the noodles would not be as pristine. The dish was simple. And simply amazing. It was delicious. They ask you if you want it hot or cold and will give you the noodles in the bowl and then you sit at one of many of the squashed in tables in the two rooms they have and add your own fixings as you please. I remember the meal being somewhere around 160yen. That is about 2USD for those of you in America. In addition they sell their noodles fresh and packaged by the register, which makes for a good omiyage for those back home. 

It is a very fast paced business that gets people in and out in under 10 or 15 minutes. They have your food in front of you practically before you even sit down! 

Other important things to do in Kagawa-ken is to visit Kotohira and the famous Kompirasan. Kompirasan is a shrine. Not just any shrine, but one of the few shrines that most all Japanese people will make a pilgrimage to at some point during their life. A couple of the others include the great Geku and Naiku shrines in Ise as well as Asakusa's shrine and temple. Kompirasan is known for its golden charms bringing luck and prosperity as well as for having a great many steps. It actually measures out to a proud 1,368 steps up the mountain. Practically a mini mountain's worth of climbing. And people were saying the Batu caves 200 steps was a feat worthy only of the strong hearted! Along the way, there are many points at which you can grab one of the many free walking sticks that are provided for travelers on the way up. They are present at the dozens of stalls more toward the base of the mountain, where you can return them on your way down the mountain. 

As with many of the older and more popular shrines, there is an inner and outer shrine. The main hall and area of the shrine is located at a half way point in between the two and is the point at which most people end their journey. The inner shrine is still a ways hike up the mountain a bit for a smaller, quieter, more peaceful forested setting. 

This shrine is also really well known for its dog. It isn't the same as those shrines that are dedicated to certain animals or anything like that, but this one is personal. A true story based on the dog that once lived there at the shrine. You see, since this shrine has so many steps, it makes it very difficult for the elderly, feeble, and sick to make it up to the top to pay homage there. The shrine maidens and workers employed the use of a dog to send down its charms and receive their less than able bodied patrons money. They would do this by training the dog to run up and down the stairs for patrons (exactly how they accomplished that I am still a bit foggy on...I think a bell might have been involved that a patron would ring to signal that they were present and unable to make it to the top) with a little pouch tied round it neck. I know some people will think what if the person didn't pay the dog, or paid him too little or what if the person needed something other than a charm. Well I can't tell you all of that since that was all the explanation in English had to offer. 

Today, there is no dog. He died some years back, but a statue to his significance remains. As to the feeble and elderly who would like to see the main hall and are unable to make it? They hire a palanquin. Pretty much those little carriage platforms that you see nobility being pampered in and carried by people. The one offered here is a much less elaborate set up, but still uses man power to transport a person up and down the stairs at a very handsome fee.