Day 19: Naoshima and Ogijima

Day 19: Naoshima and Ogijima

QOTD:  I still can’t see anything

Weather: low to mid 80s and humid

Pics:  Breakfast drink, DB and E (with THB self-portrait) at closed DeMaria installation, Albatross, many shots on Ogijima with intermittent passport management, then Naoshima starting with Yayoi cookies, and the I Love You bath house

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, Teshima art was open and Naoshima art was closed. Today, Teshima is closed and Naoshima is open. THB is not sure how that affected things: yesterday the buffet was jammed at 7:30, today it is empty; yesterday Teshima was full, today Ogijima is empty (though it may have been empty yesterday, it is a small island with only one grand artwork) and we only wait at one installation on Naoshima (there are plenty of people, just not hordes like yesterday).

Breakfast buffet: same-same. Private ferry: same-same but different! (THB refuses to rehash the atrocity of the original private ferry pickup in Uno where the driver refused to help us with our bags on or off the boat). Same boat: Albatross. Different driver: very friendly (and no friend aboard). All good!

About half hour ride to Ogijima, a compressed port town that fans out above the piers and jetties. And, in all its glory, is the new ferry terminal with a “roof” by Jaime Plensa, a well known artist with installations in Grants Park in Chicago (awesome), Des Moines, and Portland, among others. It is terrific, worth a detour (which, as you can tell given THB is in a spot few others visit, the detour has been made).

For the next two plus hours the four of us visit a variety of art installations, collecting stamps in our passports all the way along. Of note, most if not all appear to be by local artists and very conceptual using mundane objects.

THB is fading as we near the end of Ogijima installations, fortunately he can replenish with green tea out of a handy (they are ever-present) vending machine and then E, DB and THB have curry with rice and peanuts and pickles for lunch, meal in a bowl eaten with a spoon. J goes for energy bar and a hot dog with mustard, approximately $6pp.

Our friendly (not argumentative) private ferry driver is right on time and in less than 15 minutes (how can the ride back seem so much shorter than the ride out) has us in the part of Naoshima where the majority of art house projects are located.

First DB and THB have softies, vanilla for DB and black sesame (see pic) for THB, E&J share a mango (also good). Turns out, black sesame tastes very much like peanut butter and excellent, far better than other flavors.

More visits, more stamps, and only a few stops are non-repetitive from 2010 because the art house projects in Naoshima are permanent. Some famous artists are represented here: Turrell, Sugimoto, and a few others including the interior designer of the Teshima Art Museum (her art house is only open Th-Su, so we don’t get to revisit it this time).

Back to the hotel on the shuttle to rest up (and get a posting ready), miscellaneous chores, only to have DB check her e-mail and find out we missed a call from Steve, the in-Japan travel rep advising us of the possibility of a typhoon arriving tomorrow. Several calls back and forth and we have our options: the typhoon heads to China so no problem; the typhoon is coming and we stay in the hotel for the day; it’s not clear where the typhoon is heading and the hotel helps us arrange an alternate plan if we head off in the morning as planned. Stay tuned!

After our typical afternoon rest and relaxation, we’re off on the hotel shuttle, this time to the public ferry terminal where THB snags a Setouchi shirt and DB a napkin, followed by THB and DB and E visiting the I Love You bath house. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh….clean body, clean clothes, clean spirit.

Dinner at a recommended restaurant in town near the bath house for grill-it-yourself beef (3 kinds) and veggies (cabbage, green pepper, white onion), salads (cabbage, tomato, cucumber), rice, 4 brewskies and cold sake, $55 per couple, plus a softie shared by DB and THB, $3.

The hotel shuttle has ended for the night, the last local bus is an hour and half away, so we share a taxi ride (the only taxi on Naoshima? THB should get a stamp in his passport for single cab islands), $18, and the four of us are tucked in for the night, awaiting typhoon #21 for the season.