travel:: day trip to naoshima

one of the things i really wanted to tick off my list was naoshima, a must-visit for those who love art and architecture. its a teeny-tiny island that's speckled with the most stunning art musuems.

me, you and our doggie (in bag)

how to get there:: on the shinkansen, stop at okayama and catch the JR local train to the last stop, uno. catch a huge ferry (that takes bicycles & cars even!) and in 20 mins, we were at naoshima.

some awesome houses we bumped into while getting to bike rentals. "is everyone as stylish on this island?" i was already wondering..

we made a grave mistake by not reserving bicycles so by the time we were there, they were all rented out. leaving us the option of bus or foot. since we were adventurous, we chose to tackle the island by foot. the distances were fairly reasonable.

but in between the art-sites, there were a few beautiful homes, nice private beaches, many many hills and scorching hot tarmac. not the best idea, on hindsight.

we stopped for a fancy bento lunch by the water

the boys resting their feet near the chichu art museum, an underground museum that uses natural light exclusively to illuminate their works. some people visit on multiple occasions to see it in different light. chichu art museum is clustered with the benesse musuem (the main site) and the lee ufan museum. you can read more about them here.

outdoor art.

pumpkin.

scorching hot.

i was initially keen to visit the naoshima bathhouse "i love yu" but in the heat, all i wanted was an ice-cold drink so dipping my toes in steaming hot water became secondary. perhaps we'd have to come back again in winter.

our punkin' in a pumpkin. 

chairs that reminded me of the tiffany bean.

boarding the huge ferry again.

our trip research was mostly done on benesse art site naoshima 

this way home! :)

so in our little weekend vacation, we covered a few classic spots. we found a pet friendly hotel in osaka so we used that as a base for our travels. we planned it that way so we didn't have to lug our bags between cities and there was always something familiar to come back to at night. i wished we had more time in each place to explore a little bit more. read about other bits of this vacation, in nagoya, in nara, and chilling out with family. 

xx