Haven't posted a blog in a couple of weeks...I've been busy with work (as usual) and a bit under the weather. Writing a blog entry was probably something I would be able to do very well when feeling tired and sick. But I have done a few cool things in the past few weeks.
Last weekend, Natalie and I went to Naoshima Art Island with our good friends Gene and Yui. We had been hearing about this mysterious place ever since we arrived in Japan. We kept hearing how awesome it was and how we just had to go, so we finally cleared up a weekend, invited our friends, and made our way to one of the coolest places I've been to in Japan (in which I haven't been to that many places, but still).
So, what is Naoshima Island exactly? I don't really know the whole history behind it but it's basically an island in the Seto Inland Sea that was designated as an Art area some years ago. The whole island is really beautiful: trees galore and beautiful views of the surrounding sea, along with Onigiri Island (island shaped like a triangle rice ball) and the world's longest bridge nearby. There are tons of really cool museums that contain world class collections, art houses, and sculptures littered in a picturesque backdrop that includes some really nice old school Japanese architecture.
Part of the fun was getting there. Gene and Yui were nice enough to drive us way out to the port of Uno so that we could catch the huge ferry to the island. When you first approach Naoshima's tiny port, only a weird orange and black pumpkin statue shows any hint of it being an Arsy island. The rest of the waterfront is littered with quaint houses and it looks all residential. But when you get off and start walking to some of the sites, you start to notice just how filled up with stuff the whole island is.
Our first stop was the ChiChu art house. Besides the extravagant entry fee, it was a really worthwhile museum. It houses a collection of 5 permanent Claude Monet pieces among other works by famous artists. This wasn't your typical museum though, in that it was an architectural piece of art: More so than by far most museums I've ever been to. I really enjoyed this one. It's hard to describe wonderful architecture, but it was really modern (of course). There was one courtyard shaped in a sort of triangle that let in just enough sunlight so that at Noon, the shadows created by the walls around the courtyard would make a perfect triangle and point directly into a certain point. It was a really cool touch and you could tell that a lot of work went into making such a place. One of the more interesting exhibits was the Monet one, where you had to enter a dark room without your shoes to take away your sense before entering the exhibit, lit only by natural light. It really made the pieces come alive and I'm not a Monet fan by any means, but I really appreciated his work highlighted in this setting. There was also another room where you hard to walk up the stairs and step onto this weird field of blue. I can't describe it, but the initial step felt something like having to jump off a bridge. You don't know what will happen next and the blue room was created in order to take away your senses in every way. It left you floating. It was really cool. Overall, the museum was really awesome. I love places that are so intricately planned. However, I just kept thinking how much it would suck to have to work there. Museum people have to have the most boring jobs in the world. At this particular museum, everyone had to wear white, stand there, and bow your head at anyone who happens to cross paths with you. Rough.
Our next stop was the Benesse House. This one was more of a traditional museum in the sense that it housed a lot more works than the ChiChu Art House in a less interesting place. The cool thing about this one was that it was sort of hanging off of a cliff and really offered some spectacular views of the sea. It housed a variety of modern art such as Andy Warhol. My favorite piece was a wall that had flags (from all over the world) that were made of a fine sand. Inside the sand were tunnels dug by an ant colony that was strategically placed there. The museum also had the biggest fucking glass doors ever. Fun to open..
Afterwards, we made our way (very slowly) towards the next area was the Art House Projects, a collection of different traditional Japanese houses that house works by many Japanese artists. These were pretty interesting and one of the happened to have my favorite exhibit on the whole island. It was called the Dark Room, and as you can imagine it was really dark. The rooms purpose was to really mess with your sense of vision, sound, and feel and then to take those senses and really throw take the opportunity to make you say "what the fuck". You had to enter through a truly pitch black tunnel and follow a guide for a minute or so until you had to sit on a bench. By this point, you couldn't see anything at all and you felt a bit unnerved and most of all curious. As your eyes adjusted to the light for about 5 minutes, you slowly see a rectangle forming on the wall across from you. At the 5 minute mark, you were made to stand up and walk to the rectangle and reach into it. That's when things get really weird...in that it was just a hole that goes for who knows how long. It was a total mind fuck and really hard to describe.
Although we only attended about 3 museums, it was a really worthwhile time. Every street was filled with something interesting, be it architecture or just nature itself. We took our time and really enjoyed ourselves. We also had some damn good fish burgers and spent some time at a pretty nice cafe. Afterwards, we went to a really good Italian restaurant down the Bikan, sipped some wine, and downed some delicious pizza. We topped off the night by trying a new bar. I don't remember what it was called but it was a definitely a really nice sophisticated place. The whole bar was decorated with business cards and was pretty old. The bartender was an older lady that knew how to whip up some awesome cocktails. So yeah, it ended up being a really great day with some really good company. Good times!
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