15-05-08

Early sunrise, we had to be ready for the 8.12 a.m. ferry. Weather is wonderful, sunny and I would say around 23 C.

We rented some bikes - much too small ..... - to get around on the rather small island. We started with some so-called Art Houses, which were a little disappointing: what is the fun of destroying an old painted scroll with some hyper modern characters (Kadoya Art House)?

The Backside of the Moon by the artist James Turrell in an Art House designed by - there he is again - Tadao Ando was quite fun: getting in from the daylight into the entire dark is puzzling: it took us (i.e. our eyes) between 5 to 10 minutes to notice that actually we could see something.
The last Art House we could 'stand' was the Go'o Shrine: a temple with a full glass staircase is something I can not appreciate...

Off with our bikes to some outdoor pieces of art from artists like the Dutch Karel Appel and the French Niki de Saint Phalle; that was fun to chase them by feet (it is hilly on the Nao-shima island) and bike.

And yes: we found the Anna Paulownia tree (kiri); it gets too far to explain you the story behind, which some of you know already: for the moment it is enough to know that I (Ingrid) am born in Anna Paulowna and that the Anna Paulownia tree is a true Japanese tree with a special meaning starting with the birth of a girl. Something I do not understand, that it is still blooming in Japan (blossoms finished already in Paris a couple of weeks ago and it still had to start in Leiden (The Netherlands) and that the tree had so many leaves here in Japan.
Then we continued - still on our bike - to the Chichu Art Museum designed by - guess once again - Tadao Ando! One of his all concrete designs, once you get used to it, you start liking it! The interesting thing of this museum was the way the art was disposed: very spacious, and the captivating mix of light (artificial and natural), lines and material. What do you think of entering just the 2 of us, with nobody around us, on slippers (even in museums in Japan you may have to take off your shoes), and slowly but surely in front of you one of the masterpieces of the world famous French painter Claude Monet (Water Lily Pond) is showing up? Magic! On both side walls and behind us 3 more works of Claude Monet were shown.

Another interesting artist is the American Walter de Maria (never heard of him before) with his works Seen/Unseen Known/Unknown and Time/Timeless/No Time: intriguing names for intriguing pieces of art. And again we were enjoying lots of flowers: around the Museum one finds the Chichu Garden: a garden of plants cherished by Claude Monet.

So all together Nao-shima is worth to visit and fun to cycle around in a relaxed way.

I have to sign off; a co-traveller is chasing me away! We are leaving tomorrow morning for another hotel; so no idea when we can get back to you.