As wikipedia says – Naoshima is an island in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, part of Kagawa Prefecture. The island is best known for its many contemporary art installations and museums.
Don’t visit on a Monday! The galleries are closed! We learned this the hard way.
Getting there
The closest city with a JR station is Okayama, a cool place with lots of its own destinations (like a castle) which I will blog about another time.
If you happen to be doing a day trip from Okayama, you’ll want to leave as early as you can because it will take at least 1.5 hours transit time to get there, and the ferry schedule is limited. And be sure you plan your trip back as well to ensure you have enough time and aren’t rushing.
There are two ferry docks, one that takes cars and one for foot passengers only. The food passenger one is smaller, obviously, and I think it’s faster, and is actually less comfortable.
Getting Around
If you arrive in Miyanoura Port, make sure you check out Marine Station, they had a special pumpkin cream puff/macaron type thing. You’ll have to buy the ticket at the vending machine and hand the ticket to the clerk to get your sweet treat. We’ll check back later to see how that went for me 😀
Right at the ferry port, you can see artist Yayoi Kusama’s red pumpkin. You can go inside it!
I expect you could rent a car or something but we went with bicycles. During the off season (December/January) the only Bike Rental place that’s open is Ougiya. Make sure you check the tires, brakes, etc – mine required a bit of tweaking before we rolled out.
On the opposite side of the island, at Honmura Port, you can find some giant bubbles in which to park your bike, if you are so inclined. Designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nihsizawa. Fun stuff!
Naoshima Noodles
Right next to a supermarket (Mitsubishi Materials Naoshima Co-op) there’s a little ramen place called Naoshima Noodles [google link]. We arrived just before lunch and the place was completely empty. We struggled a bit trying to decipher the ticket machine that you use to place your order, but there is an English menu available to help you translate – just ask for it! Just a few minutes after we got our ramen, hordes of salarymen came in to crowd the place.
From here we rode our bikes up a winding steep hill to get to the “Amazing View Spot” on the map above. It was a bit rough, even with electric-assist bikes! But we made it! There’s an orange pumpkin down there somewhere….
Down the hill (scary slope and curves – ride slow) we found Tsutsuji-So Seaside Park. There’s a bus stop here and a beach! Must be nice when it’s not JANUARY!
Time to try my pumpkin macaron – pretty good! Very rich and sweet, a bit of a trial to finish the whole thing by myself.
Plants!
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