Naoshima

Japan is made up of quite a lot of islands. Many of them are suffering from a reduced population and loss of industry. One such island is Naoshima. The government has been developing it as an artistic venue, and many galleries have been built there. As well there have been initiatives to attract artists to the island. Today we visited the island from Okayama. To get there we had to take two trains and a ferry.

Once on the island, there’s a free bus that you can catch to go halfway around the island to a gallery where several of Monet’s water lily paintings are displayed. They are developing a water lily garden to reflect the paintings. Unfortunately, there gallery had presold all the tickets for today, so we didn’t see the paintings themselves, but we were free to wander down the road looking at the garden. They had tried to include many of the plants in Monet’s garden, but I think that a French garden was a bit difficult for them to emulate.

We gradually wandered back towards the harbour, visiting several of the galleries and walking through sculpture gardens. 

On the way back, I noticed that the train stations all had different interesting designs on them.

This canal is outside the hotel we’re staying at.