Naoshima Island

Naoshima Island is an 'art island' There are two big museums/galleries full of very expensive art and several arthouses where installations are permanently set up.  We couldn't take photos inside the art houses or museums but there are also some sculptures outside. Probably the best known are the Yayoi Kusama pumpkins.

Naoshima Island arthouse. The house appears to be made of recycled materials so it is a surprise to go inside and find a 2 storey high statue of the Statue of Liberty.

This picture of two boats doesn't look like much but inside the Bennese House art gallery there is a picture of a black boat and a yellow dingy. Underneath the picture is a real black boat and a yellow dingy and if you look out of the window you can see in the distance in a little bay, a black boat and a yellow dingy.

There isn't much low priced/hostel accomodation on the island. We stayed in a yurt near the yellow Yayoi Kusama pumpkin. Most of the other yurts were empty so although we had pre-booked (booked by a Japanese friend for us) we could have just made a booking through the tourist information office at Uno station.
The weather on the day we arrived there was very wet and it was hard to remove shoes outside the door of the yurt (which has no porch) whilst juggling bags and an umbrella. Then we had to take the shoes inside the yurt to stop the 'racoon dogs' eating them or stealing them.

Yurt inside and outside. They are surprisingly comfortable inside with a great heater. 

Kurashiki, Okayama

Junk shop in Kurashiki. One dog in front and about a 100 on the roof which we didn't notice until it was too dark to take a photo.

The trees are very well looked after in Kurashiki. This one is bandaged from top to bottom.

Chris had a chocolate crepe. The we read the sign 'Collagen crepe'. Not sure if the crepes really are made of collagen???

Okayama Castle by night.

Miyajima, Iwakuni

We spent a morning on Miyajima Island.It was high tide when we got there and low tide when we left.

Classic shot of cherry blossom by Clare, but not a winning effort really. We started to get a bit more picky about cherry blossom shots after a week, as quite a lot of the blossom was past it's best.

A sign on the walkway to the gondolas/ropeway.

After Miyajima, Chris headed off to Hiroshima to look around the Peace Museum. I went there last year so I headed off to Iwakuni. Iwakuni is lovely and well worth a visit but I really recommend that you take a local train so you end up at the right station. Shin-Iwakuni station is miles away from anywhere and there weren't any coin lockers available that would take my bag so I had to get it all the way over to the local station in order to leave it while I went to the famous bridge.

The bridge is amazing. Samurai were allowed to walk over it, commoners had to take the ferry. When you cross the bridge there are some lovely samurai houses and compounds to look at, a mini castle and albino snakes. It is all very tasteful and beautiful but there are the usual souvenir shops with Hello Kitty overload and the odd concrete dog or two.

Chris and I met up again on the train and spent the night in Kurashiki. If anyone is going to stay in Kurashiki YHA, Do follow the instructions listed on the website from the Kurashiki Station. Don't try it from Shin-Kurashiki Station. That makes the suggested taxi cost rather more than the suggested 800 yen which it would have cost from Kurashiki station. Once again, I was caught by the fact that the Shinkansen station and local station are completely different sides of the city. Kurashiki YHA is also up a very big hill which goes through a cemetery and is dark at night. It isn't the most convenient hostel but the full Japanese breakfast was wonderful.

Train trip

From Yokohama we went straight down to Miyajima. It took nearly all day to get there. We decided to treat ourselves to Ekiben (station lunches) to eat on the train. Here is mine. It was bought in Yokohama and the wrapping has a copy of  a Yokohama woodblock print on the wrapping paper.

Inside are all sorts of goodies. Chris is vegetarian and his was  boring in comparison.

Kamakura

It was raining heavily today but it was our only chance to go to Kamakura which is one of the former capital cities of Japan. Chris particularly wanted to go there as 'The big Buddha' there is one of the treasures collected on  'Age if Empires' computer game.

It was probably the coldest most miserable day we could have chosen to go there. I had to buy gloves from the 100 yen shop and we spent some time in a pancake parlour with hot chocolate and extreme pancakes (so much cream you feel quite queasy afterwards, I recommend choosing the custard filling instead). Above photo is the Jizo statues at Hasadera Temple, Kamakura.

The big Buddha is so huge you can actually go inside the statue itself. It has been put together in bits and you can see the joins from inside. It is amazing technology considering it was built in 1252. Originally it was built inside a temple but the buildings were  burned down and not rebuilt so now it is outside.

About the 11th of April _ Japan

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I arranged to meet Haruko Watanabe from Gallery Tsumugi today. A few months ago I ordered a catalogue for the Boro exhibition at the Amuse Gallery in Tokyo, from Haruko. When I ordered the book she said, "if you are in Tokyo, come and see my shop/gallery', I don't suppose many people actually do visit! We had a happy afternoon looking at all the Boro items and fabrics. Haruko had been to an auction the day before so had some lovely hemp pieces, I love the stiffness of the hemp fabric and she also had a samurai outfit in brown, similar to this...

 

A bit impractical for fighting in though

, ceremonial only! I bought some small pieces of fabric from Haruko, mostly just examples of different types of Shibori and some pieces of paste resist fabric just to have for samples to show students. Photo to follow.

The same day, my son and I saw the start of a Cosplay convention. Bus loads of teenage girls were turning up in downtown Yokohama with Wheelie suitcases, dissapearing into a building and coming out dressed up in Cosplay outfits. Most were busy taking photos of their friends in the gardens.

day 5 Yokohama and Boro textiles

Chris and I decided to try and find some of the woodblock prints at the art gallery with no luck, but we saw a giant cigarrette (we think it was advertising a quit programme but without being able to read Kanji, it could just as easily have been advertising smoking, as we couldn't tell).

The big ciggie, the view from the top of the Yokohama ferris wheel, and the view from the top of the Landmark Tower in Yokohama.