50 and beyond

On day 3 of my recent holiday to Japan, we spent one day in Naoshima, the “art island”.

I used ChatGPT to plan the day for me.

Naoshima used to be a polluted island. But today, it has been transformed into a touristy artsy place. It attracts crowds keen to view the art and installations of Yayoi Kusama (amongst other artists), as well as a museum which houses some art pieces by Claude Monet and James Turrell. There are also “houses” scattered within the village, which exhibit art as well as houses which showcase architectural design.

We took the first high-speed ferry in from Takamatsu, where we were staying just across the road from the ferry terminal. Once we landed, we did the touristy thing and took photos of the beautiful red Yayoi pumpkin.

Thereafter, we wandered into the island. We stopped by the first café we saw to have our breakfast. I loved the feel of the laid back village.

Over breakfast, we discussed about how we were going to move around the island. Our original intention was to rent bicycles as this was the most popular option (based on social media posts). Car rental was out of the question as there were less than 10 cars available for rental and they needed to be reserved weeks beforehand. And I found out that there are only two taxis on the island. Anyway, when we arrived at the island and saw how small the touristy part of the island was, we decided to walk. We ended walking 16km over the day. It was doable and comfortable. Also didn’t feel so bad having a good dinner that night.

The island is very touristy. We soon found out that we needed to pay about ¥600 to enter each of the art houses that were open for viewing.

We encountered some red tape trying to get tickets to enter the art houses. You would think clicking a simple QR code and indicating how many tickets you wanted was easy. Well no, it wasn’t so. After you click, the website insisted that we set up an account. Then, after setting up the account, we had to log into the website all over again. Thereafter, the site asked for all kinds of personal particulars such as our home address and telephone number. That was followed by a questionnaire on how we got to hear about the art project. Lastly, we had to pay only by credit card. They didn’t accept cash.

It took us almost 15 minutes to figure it all out. We also saw several other tourists struggling with the application process to secure tickets to enter the art house.

The Ishibashi house we entered exhibited two pieces of work and I must say they were impressive.

The first was this painting. We were told that there was iron in the paint and so, as the painting oxidises over the years, the painting changes colour and looks different. I must say it was beautiful. And as the sunlight shone in the room over time, the painting looked different. I was very surprised. I didn’t think a painting could captivate me so much.

The second painting was just as impressive. It really felt like I was looking at a live waterfall.

As we went to search for other art houses, we started to realise that it was not going to be easy to get entry into each of the houses. It was getting more and more crowded and soon, there were queues forming outside each art house. Being cheapskate philistines, we decided to change course and just walk around the area.

We loitered around the area, and wandered at some free exhibits before we accidentally walked by the restaurant I had planned to go for lunch.

Like most of the other restaurants in this village, the restaurant is really a refurbished house. Each restaurant seats perhaps about 20 diners. Diners may have to share seats if the table is large enough to seat more diners.

This restaurant served just one bento set—a vegetarian bento.

It was delicious. I was particularly intrigued by this bamboo shoot dish (see the bamboo shoot with the green gravy?). The dish reminded me of something familiar. I later asked and the cook told me she had used a Thai curry paste. Ah! It was a green curry!

The miso soup was also unusual as it was creamy in texture. The cook explained that she had added oat milk into the miso soup.

Halfway through lunch, an American white couple entered with a local Japanese tour guide and sat at the other end of our table. The lady was loud and overbearing throughout lunch. We didn’t have to eavesdrop, they spoke loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear their every word. While waiting for their bento to be served, the tour guide explained that she had brought them there because the lady had indicated that she was vegetarian. The lady clarified loudly that she was very easy and she could dine at any restaurant as long as she was served just vegetables.

When the lunch set arrived, the lady stared at her bento and declared that she could only eat hot dishes. She would not be able to eat the cold vegetable dishes. She also declared that she disliked tofu. The atmosphere in the restaurant turned tense. I was relieved when they finished their lunch quickly and left. We saw that they left everything untouched except the miso soup and rice. The tour guide sounded embarrassed; she apologised and explained again that she had selected that restaurant for lunch because of the special comment the lady had made on her preference for vegetarian food.

The couple left a bitter aftertaste for Hubby and me. We kept thinking about the lady throughout the rest of the day.

Post lunch, we walked over to the Benesse Art Site where Yayoi Kusama’s yellow pumpkin was located. I liked the giant sized polka dotted pumpkin so much that even thought of buying a small replica from the museum shop to display in my home. But after some thought, I decided against it. I certainly didn’t want it to break en route! I find it ironic that what caused distress and anxiety to Yayoi brings joy and a sense of fun to her audience.

There were a lot of other brightly coloured installations scattered around the Benesse Art Site.

The highlight of the island was our visit to Chichu Museum. I purchased tickets a month earlier as advised by ChatGPT.

No photo taking allowed in the museum, so I will just describe our afternoon there.

The Japanese staff manning the exhibits were so anal about how we were to view the exhibits that the entire visit felt part surreal and part pretentious and part plain funny.

We first made our way to the Claude Monet exhibit. As the room holding his five paintings was small, only about a dozen people are allowed to enter at any time. The rest had to queue outside the room to wait our turn.

Secondly, we were made to take off our shoes before entering. It was to “respect” the art. While waiting in queue, I started to joke with Hubby about how funny it would be if a tourist took off his shoes and his feet stank up the entire room.

There were 5 Monet paintings in the exhibit. They all looked like lilies in water. I took out my brochure and saw that they were all titled “Lilies”. Haha.

Okay. So Money was revolutionary because he was a key founding father of the impressionism movement. But I wondered if any of these pieces were submitted by my kids as their assignment, they would be talent spotted or given a big fat F?

Next, we went to the James Turrell exhibit. While queuing for that exhibit, Hubby was very amused by the service staff who gestured to Hubby to shuffle just slightly to his left, to keep the queue straight. She was a fanatic when it came to making a perfect line.

SPOILER ALERT. DO NOT READ THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO VISIT THE MUSEUM. When I first entered the room, I was very unimpressed. There was a large screen (like a movie screen) at the top of a flight of stairs. A guide at the other corner of the room gestured to us to stand in a line to admire the lit-up screen. I was the first to enter the room and so, I was asked to walk towards the far end of the room where the guide was standing. And there we all stood, looking at the lit-up screen. Yuck, I thought to myself. It must be one of those post-modern pieces where I am supposed to admire and ponder about an abstract installation.

Then the guide invited us to climb the stairs to get closer to the screen. Okay, so we all walked up the stairs until the screen was right before our eyes. We all stood there quite awkwardly for a while.

Then, the guide looked at me and invited me to enter the light. What? He repeated to me to step forward. Huh? And so, I lifted my leg and just took the faith and just walked into the light. I entered the light. I gasped. The others gasped and they all followed and entered the light as well.

I can’t quite describe how it felt. It was only when we walked through that we suddenly realised that the screen wasn’t a screen at all. It was space. It felt a bit like I was in an infinite space. After a while, our eyes got used to it and we began to see the edges of the room. Only then did the novelty wear off and we left the room. When we climbed back down the stairs and looked back, we could see the room. We must have looked silly earlier when we were all standing abreast.

Turrell’s other exhibit was very intriguing too. It was really just a square area. When you look up, you saw a square of the sky. But I don’t know how he made the border perimeter, it made the sky look like it was a painting. Clever or not? The sky changes throughout the day because it’s the sky… As Hubby commented, God is the ultimate artist. Turrell was showcasing God’s work.

The second exhibition was, in my opinion, the most boring one. We entered a room, and saw a very large ball (2.2m diameter) on the middle landing of a flight of steps all the way up; much like a cinema theatre with a middle horizontal aisle. There’s an opening at the top of the ceiling, just above ball. There were 27 identical gold-coloured thingies scattered around the room. My guess is that they must somehow be reflecting light? Hubby and I climbed up to the top to look down.

We were trying to figure out what the art was trying to convey when we saw two white ladies walk to the ball. One of them touched it and pushed it! Hubby broke down trying to contain his giggly fit. He said this was a great Mr Bean moment; what if that ball dislodged and rolled down the steps! We saw that the staff on duty didn’t see that someone had pushed the ball. That was because the ball was huge and she was standing at the other side of the ball.

Ah! Hubby finally figured out the point of the art! Or did he? Which was…how on earth was the ball brought into the room? The entrance to the room was much smaller than the ball. The “hole” at the ceiling was too small too. So, either the ball was constructed in the room, or the ball was lowered down before the ceiling was built.

And with that, we left the room.

We spent some time walking around the museum building as the design of the building was an exhibit in itself. The building was built “downwards”. It doesn’t protrude up.

And with that, we left the museum to make our way back to the ferry terminal to catch the last ferry back to Takamatsu.

So, okay lah. Naoshima was fun and intriguing. But we won’t go again to see the same pieces of art.