Tag Archives: Japan

Naoshima, the art island of Japan

The night before we left Yakushima, we met Georg, a young and enthusiastic Swiss architect who was full of praise for Naoshima when we told him we were heading there next. For years now I’ve been building my perfect house in my head, collecting inspiration from designs, materials and nice touches I’ve seen, and I asked Georg’s advice about how best to convey my ideas to an architect, which started a fascinating conversation..

Georg politely explained that I’d be employing the architect to do the design, so it’s far better to think about how I intended to live in the house, and to mention anything that affects the allocation of space, for example, where will I spend most of my time? Is the kitchen more important to me than the lounge? What impression should the house make from the outside?

Naoshima is covered in art, like this giant red pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama that greets you at the ferry terminal

Then we started talking about materials and found we shared what some might call an unhealthy fondness for bare concrete. Georg showed me the works of architects who use concrete in their designs, and specifically those of Japanese architect Tadao Ando who is known for his ‘brutalist’ style of concrete, glass and steel, and I knew I was going to enjoy Naoshima.

Tadao Ando

Tadao Ando is self-taught and one of the most famous architects in Japan. He has designed buildings across the world, including Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester (UK), Fort Worth’s Modern Art Museum in Texas (USA), and of course, many buildings in Japan such as the Tokyo Skytree, the Omotesando Hills shopping complex and three large museum spaces on Naoshima.

Omotesando Hills shopping complex in Tokyo. One continuous inclining walkway links all the shops. Photo source: Wikipedia

Chichu Art Museum

Built into the top of a hill, the Chichu Art Museum incorporates a number of permanent installations, and is itself a work of art

Chichu Art Museum. Ando's design meant the museum building is all underground. Source: Benesse Art Site Naoshima

Chichu Art Museum. Ando designed the museum to be underground while still making use of natural light. Source: Benesse Art Site Naoshima

We loved the mix of geometry and materials, the long underground entrance corridor of concrete reminded me of the D.T. Suzuki zen museum in Kanazawa, and ended with a square, open air staircase whose bannister concealed the stairs so from the ground it just looked like a large square atrium. After climbing the stairs, another long open air corridor ends with a triangular courtyard which we descended to access the gallery spaces.

The triangular courtyard of the ChiChu musem. This one has stones at the bottom, the square one had long grass

We thought it worth visiting just for the museum building, but there are site specific installations by 3 artists, including a stunning off-white room of natural light built specifically for 5 of Monet’s Water Lilly series paintings, 2 immersive installations by James Turrell, an American artist who presents light as art, and a large stepped room containing a huge sphere surrounded by various geometric cricket-stumps by Walter De Maria which was Julie’s favourite.

Lee Ufan Museum

The Lee Ufan Museum on Naoshima. Pointy

The Lee Ufan Museum is a small museum, again designed by Ando and again built into the landscape. We liked the contrast – the large open space outside with the huge standing column gave a feeling of openness and accessibility, but this initial feeling is quickly betrayed by the claustrophobic passageway of 18-foot high concrete walls one must traverse before arriving at the museum’s underground entrance. Inside, the journey through the gallery spaces continue the theme of contrast: light then dark, large then small, each carefully planned for the exhibition of one of Lee Ufan’s installation pieces, until the final room.

Medium in size, with natural light, wooden flooring and rounded corners, the final room is juxtaposed with the rest of the museum, a final contrast if you will, and it invites contemplation because it’s designed as a mediation space. I really liked this – a dedicated space where you are encouraged to sit for a while and reflect on the art and architecture you’ve just experienced.

Lee Ufan – Shadow of Stone. Source: kamel mennour

Of the artwork, I enjoyed the mix of Lee’s work – the large abstract block paintings of the ‘Encounter’ room (entitled ‘From Point’ and ‘From Line’), and the ‘Shadow of Stone’ piece where a video was projected into the shadow of a knee-high stone was captivating for both its content and execution.

Benesse House Museum

Benesse House Museum. Source: Benesse House

The original museum project of the island, the Benesse House Museum is part of the larger Benesse complex that also includes an exclusive hotel, park and a beach. While still incorporating permanent artwork installations such as the Oval (which, sadly, is only open to guests of the hotel), the Benesse Museum is more of a conventional contemporary exhibition space.

Benesse House Museum - Some of our favourite pieces from the exhibition. Yukinori Yanagi 'The World Flag Ant Farm' (source: Benesse Art House Site); Bruce Nauman '100 Live and Die'; Yoshihiro Suda 'Weeds' (source: Big in Japan)

Benesse House Museum – Some of our favourite pieces from the exhibition. Yukinori Yanagi ‘The World Flag Ant Farm’ (source: Benesse House); Bruce Nauman ‘100 Live and Die’; Yoshihiro Suda ‘Weeds’ (source: Big in Japan)

Our favourites were the wall of country flags made from painted sand and joined up into a giant ant-farm, which meant the ants had completely destroyed some of the flags (we tried to identify as many as we could!); the flashing neon wall of words and the very cute piece by Yoshihiro Suda called ‘Weeds’, which look like small weeds growing out of the building itself!

Art House Project

Minamidera, houses my favourite exhibit of Naoshima – ‘Backside of the Moon’ by James Turrell. Photo source: The Unhatched Egg blog

The Art House Project is a collection of regular dwellings that had been abandoned, and were subsequently turned into art installations. A single ticket buys entrance to all 6 of them, and it was fun to cycle between them, as they’re all located in the small port town of Honmura.

We’d spent most of our day at the bigger museums, but we had just enough time to quickly visit each house. On the advice of the ticket staff, we made a beeline for the Ando designed Minamidera, as entrance was limited by number and to 15 minute blocks – which immediately piqued our interest – that and it was built for another James Turrell installation..

While we waited for our turn, we zipped off to see the others before returning for what would be my favourite single exhibit of the island.

Haisha, the ‘scrapbook’ art house

Julie really liked the crazy Haisha, which is aptly described as a ‘scrapbook’ and includes a giant plastic statue of liberty, and we both really liked Kadoya with its pool of submerged LED numbers counting down at different speeds.

Finally, Minamidera. We were led into the short end of the building by a handrail because it’s an installation in the dark. Once in, we sit down and are advised to wait about 10 minutes for our eyes to adjust.

10 minutes later, we can now make out two faint lights at either side of the other end of the room, and between them we were asked if we could see the screen – an empty rectangle of grey that looks like a cinema screen. Once we were all able to see it, I was expecting a show to start, and thinking that the show had already begun, I started seeing little stars move across the screen..

Then we were asked to stand up and approach it. What I thought had been stars were actually the blood vessels in my eyeballs, and as we got to the screen we found it was completely uniform in colour. Then came the surprise.

I’d love to tell you what happened next, but this one is better when you experience it for yourself :)

Us with another of Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkins

We thoroughly enjoyed the art and architecture-packed day on Naoshima, but as each museum charges around ¥1,000 (~£6) for entry (or ¥2,000 for Chichu), we spent ¥5,000 (~£30) each, and that doesn’t include lunch, bicycle hire, or the round-trip ferry to get there. Yep, it was an expensive day on our budget, but it was definitely worth it!

Yakushima, Japan

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While we were chatting to the owner of the hostel where we stayed in Nara and telling him our rough plans for our travels in Japan he asked if we’d heard about Jomon Sugi, a really old tree in the centre of an island off the south coast of Kyushu. Well, we hadn’t but it sounded intriguing and after a little more research we found that the name of the island is Yakushima and that 20% of it has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site on account of the value of its ancient cedar forests. It was quickly added into our itinerary.

Yakushima’s location [Image source: Yakumonkey]

Several weeks later we had made our way as far south as Kagoshima. Our final day in the city was grey and rainy so it was a pleasant surprise when we woke the following morning to blue skies and bright sunshine. Especially pleasant as we had a four hour ferry journey ahead of us which really wouldn’t be nice if it was windy and raining.

Yakushima is 60km south of Kagoshima and there are three ways to get there, flight (very fast and very expensive), hydrofoil (takes about two hours and more moderately priced) and car ferry (takes twice as long as the hydrofoil and is half the price). We opted for the cheapest option but would recommend it to others if they have the time. The ferry was comfortable, uncrowded and Andrew was thrilled to discover that there’s an onboard sauna, although he didn’t get chance to make use of it.

The end of the Satsuma peninsula seen from the ferry to Yakushima. The conical mountain in the centre of the photo is Mt Kaimon-dake.

As the ferry approached Miyanoura port we were delighted to see flying fish scooting away from the ship (and stunned at how far they can travel). I was also surprised by how mountainous the island looked and began to feel a little nervous about the long walk to the old tree which we planned to do the following day.

Our first stop was the tourist office where picked up what has to be my favourite information handout ever – an A3 sheet with a map of the whole island, all the bus stops, points of interest and a complete bus timetable for all the routes – an obsessive travel planner’s dream tool! Next we wandered along the main street in search of lunch, eventually settling on Satchan where the friendly waitress managed to translate enough of the menu for us to decide on a set meal of Yakushima specialties. It was a delicious feast of sashimi, fishcake and grilled fish although the fact that it contained lots of flying fish made us feel a little guilty after admiring them so much from the ferry…

Excited to dig into our lunch!

Yakushima is famous for its ancient cedar forests and also has the rather dubious honour of being the wettest place in Japan receiving up to 10,000mm of rainfall per year. To put that into perspective, the wettest town in Britain, Dalness in the Scottish Highlands, gets an average of 3,300mm per year. Yes, that’s right, this place is three times wetter than Scotland! We had our fingers crossed for a dry day for the walk up the mountain and the forecast looked promising.

You can tell how wet the climate is by the amount of moss in the forest

Our accomodation was a one hour bus ride from Miyanoura which Andrew managed to sleep through while I followed the route closely with my new favourite piece of paper. Alighting from the bus we found ourselves in the company of two other travellers, Brian from New York and Claudia from Zurich, and quickly realised that we were all staying at the same guesthouse. We spent the rest of the evening talking them into the early start that was necessary to join us for the 10 hour hike to Jomon Sugi. The only public transport option to the Arakawa Trail Head meant that we had to get up at 4.30am…

Brian, Claudia, Julie and Andrew looking pretty chipper at the start of the trail at 6.45am

The first three-quarters of the trail are not too challenging. The path is along an old logging railway and the incline is very gentle although the distance is long (just over 8km or about 5 miles). We were by no means the only group to be doing the hike although most of the others seemed to be small groups of mostly middle-aged Japanese ladies with tour guides. Everyone was very friendly and by the end of the day, having passed each other numerous times, we almost felt like honorary members of some of the groups!

Walking the railway line

Us with a slice of the trunk of a felled cedar at the site of an abandoned loggers’ village part way along the trail.

The last section of the trail is only 2.7km (about 1.7 miles) but it is steep and the path is a combination of steps, boardwalk and twisty tree roots so we really needed to watch our step. This is close to the highest part of the island, where the old growth forest still survives. There are many old trees along the path and a couple of stumps too. Wilson’s Stump is big enough to fit about eight people inside and, when looked through from the right angle, the view up to the canopy from its centre is heart shaped.

The last part of the trail seemed to be a never ending series of steps

Andrew checking out the height of one of the ancient cedar trees

After seeing some incredible huge trees we thought that Jomon Sugi might be a bit of an anti-climax, but when we arrived it made us gasp. It’s the largest cedar ever found in Japan at 25.3m tall and 16.4m in circumference. Estimates of its age range from 2,170 to 7,200 years old, based on a scientific sampling of the trunk, and an estimate from its size respectively.

Us with Jomon Sugi. Unfortunately this is as close as you’re allowed to go to prevent erosion around the tree’s roots.

After stopping for lunch, we then had to turn around and do it all in reverse. We just pressed on to get the hard part over and done with quickly and we were back on the railway line in about an hour and a half from where, even with tired legs, the going wasn’t too bad. Highlights of the walk back were seeing deer and a couple of monkeys (both sub-species indigenous to Yakushima) and also a brief stop away from the track at the riverside – the water is crystal clear and looks wonderfully turquoise blue in the sunlight. I was very tempted to give my feet a soak but eventually decided against it worried that once off, I might not be able to get my boots back on!

At the river in the afternoon sunshine

At last we made it back to the trail head in time to catch the bus back to the guesthouse. All four of us exhilarated but exhausted.

You’d think that after all that exertion we’d take it easy the next day but we only had two full days on Yakushima and we wanted to make the most of it so we hired bikes from the guesthouse and set off to explore the southern coast of the island. After picking up a picnic lunch, we made our way to Hirauchi Onsen to coincide with low tide. This hot spring bath is very much au natural, the sulphurous spa water bubbles up from beneath the rocks and is contained in crude concrete baths. It’s so close to the sea that it can only be used for a few hours either side of low tide.

Hirauchi Seaside Onsen

The onsen was exactly what we needed to ease our aching muscles and it left us feeling so relaxed that we thought we might go straight back to the guesthouse, but after a bite of lunch and a sugary drink we had a bit more energy and decided to carry on to see if we could reach the waterfall marked on our map. Turns out it was a bit further than we’d expected, but by the time we’d realised we were only a few kilometres away and so we pressed on.

Ohko-no-taki waterfall with a drop of 88m was much more impressive than we’d expected especially considering that it was the end of the dry season.

By the time we got back to the guesthouse we were completely exhausted and when we worked out that we’d cycled a total of about 50km we joked that all we needed now was to swim back to Kagoshima and it would be like a three day triathlon! In the end though we decided to get the ferry instead…

Yakushima’s southern coast (clockwise from top left): Mountainous scenery above the bridge at Kurio, a very strange house, beach at Nakama, a huge banyan tree

One of the very few things that we don’t like about travelling in Japan is that reasonably priced accommodation can get booked up fast and so we’ve found it necessary to have our accommodation booked well in advance. This denies us the flexibility to stay in places that we really like for longer than our initial estimate. We could easily have stayed on Yakushima for a week, gradually exploring the whole island and chilling out in its quiet greenness but unfortunately it wasn’t possible this time. We also started daydreaming about island hopping between the remote and small inhabited islands even further south so I think there’s a pretty good chance that we’ll be back!

Volcanic activity near Kagoshima, Japan

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In Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, the volcanic activity of the archipelago is obvious and nowhere more so than near Kagoshima towards its southernmost tip. Incidentally the area around Kagoshima is called the Satsuma Peninsula which we found endlessly amusing even before we found out it actually is famous for citrus fruits. The Komikan tangerine is a variety indiginous to the area and tastes a bit like a cross between an orange and a lime – very yummy!

One of the reasons we visited Kagoshima was the fish market tour, but we were also keen to see the volcanic activity and how it affects the day-to-day life of the residents.

Sakurajima

Just 4km across the bay from Kagoshima is the very active Mt Sakurajima (cherry blossom island). It streams smoke almost constantly and erupts more than 1000 times a year although mostly just small quantities of ash. The falling ash is a fact of life for local residents and bags of it are cleaned up from the streets. Seeing the volcano billowing on the day that we visited was pretty awe inspiring and every so often we would turn to each other to say ‘Wow!’

Bags of ash awaiting collection on a street corner in Kagoshima

We took the cruise ferry, which departs once a day from Kagoshima, and takes 50 minutes instead of the 15 minutes of the direct ferry. It skirted the lava fields around the south-west part of the volcano before arriving at the port.

Sakurajima billowing smoke, seen from the cruise ferry

At the port we hopped onto the ‘island view’ bus to head up to the Yunohira Observatory, the closest access point to the crater. At 373m above sea level it’s just over a third of the way up. After we’d taken some photos of the volcano and admired the view of Kagoshima, there didn’t seem to be much more to do there and we still had 45 minutes to wait before the next bus. Then we noticed that the information leaflet said there were seven heart shaped stones hidden around. It seemed like a reasonable way to pass the time but even after a thorough search including the car park we only managed to find four, perhaps the rest were covered in ash!

Us at Yunohira Observatory

Yunohira Observatory (clockwise from top): View across the bay to Kagoshima, aerial view of the three craters in the visitor centre, one of the heart shaped stones once we’d cleared the ash away

Back on the bus, we descended from the observatory to Karasujima Viewpoint where we read that it used to be an island 500m away from the volcano until the 1914 eruption. This is the most recent big eruption of Sakurajima and it not only buried this small islet under 20m of lava but also filled the strait between the volcano and the mainland, and destroyed three villages. Reading this we were shocked that Sakurajima still has a population of 5000 people but I suppose the economic lure of tourism, fertile fields and ash that can be mined is hard to resist. The tourism leaflet says that the population ‘live in harmony with the volcano’ but I’m not convinced that anyone has fully explained that to Sakurajima…

From Karasujima we walked the 3km trail back to the port town to end the day with a soak of our feet in the public foot bath

Ibusuki Sand Baths

An interesting effect of the volcanic activity can be experienced in Ibusuki, an hour south of Kagoshima by train, where steam bubbles up through the sand heating it to spa temperatures. We like a good hot bath and so we were keen to try the hot sand. First we wandered along the deserted seafront and ate our packed lunch sitting on the seawall and gazing out to sea before making our way back to Sunamushi Kaikan Saraku (Natural Sand Bath) and paying the entry fee.

Deserted sea front at Ibusuki

Rows of spa goers buried in sand at Sunamushi Kaikan Saraku

In the changing rooms we put on the provided yukata (imagine a kind of cotton dressing gown) and made our way to the beach where we lay down in a hollow and the staff began to shovel hot sand over us, something like you might have done to your dad on the beach as a kid. It was a relaxing experience and not actually as hot as we’d expected. The recommended time to stay covered for the full blood cleansing benefits is 10 minutes but we both managed at least 15 minutes.

Staff shovelling sand over Julie

Buried up to our necks! You wrap a small towel around your head to protect your head and neck from the heat

Andrew escaping from under the sand

After wriggling our way out we made our way back up to the onsen building to rinse the sand out of all the places it had worked its way into. The sand bath was a fun and unique experience and left our skin feeling thoroughly cleansed.

Kumamoto, Japan

Nagasaki, Japan

Dejima

Scale model of Dejima in the north-eastern garden area, Dejima

During the Edo period (1603 to 1868), the Japanese cautiously opened up to trade with the west, but in an effort to keep the trade at arms length because of concerns over the the spread of Christianity through Japan, it annexed foreign traders to a small fan-shaped island called Dejima. Initially inhabited by the Portuguese, and later by the Dutch, all cargo from foreign ships had to pass through this 120m x 75m islet, where Japanese officials could monitor and record all transactions.

Opperhoofd’s (Chief Factor’s) residence on Dejima. The ground floor was used for storage and the first floor for entertaining and living

The trade brought many benefits to Japan and Dejima became known as a centre of medicine, military science, and astronomy. Many samurai travelled here for so called “Dutch studies”.

The Dutch also brought billiards – more pockets than a magician’s jacket. Julie beating me, and the attendant beating me

As Nagasaki grew in the late 18th century, Dejima was reclaimed as part of the mainland and was lost until 1922 when the Japanese Government designated the land a National Historic Site and work began on restoring the canal that was originally dug to create Dejima, and re-establishing the buildings.

Because Dejima is still landlocked (save for the Nakashima River), it was difficult to visualise just how small it must have felt when it was surrounded by water, still, it was nice to see staff dressed in period costume, and there was plenty of information in English. Some of the exhibits felt a little sparse, but that’s understandable as most of the buildings would have been used for storage and exhibits of crate-filled warehouses would get boring very quickly!

Chinese settlement

While the Dutch were restricted to Dejima, the Chinese traders were supposedly confined to a square walled section of the port’s mainland, but in reality they had almost free movement within the city.

Map of the old Chinese quarter in Nagasaki

On the side of the valley overlooking the port, the old Chinese settlement was a little difficult to find because all that really remains of it are parts of the moat and some of the temples – the houses themselves have long since been replaced and it was very easy to get lost wandering through them.

The Temples of the Chinese Quarter in Nagasaki; Fukken-Kaikan; Kannon-do; Dojin-Do

We enjoyed the peace and tranquility of the Chinese temples, and it was nice to wander through the maze of narrow streets, peering into the homes and lives of normal people.

Glover Garden

With the Meiji Restoration (1868 to 1912), Japan reversed its isolated stance and foreign trade was once again encouraged. No longer confined to walled settlements, early merchants built lavish western-style homes overlooking the port, among them Thomas Blake Glover who was born in Scotland and moved to Nagasaki in 1859 at the age of 21.

Bust of Thomas Blake Glover

Glover is credited with developing western industrialisation and manufacturing in Japan; his shipbuilding business and dry dock later became the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan; and he also helped found the Japan Brewery Company which became the Kirin Brewery Company – now the largest domestic beer producer in Japan and whose logo is said to be based on a dragon statue in his house and incorporates his legendary moustache.

Glover’s house in the Glover Gardens, Nagasaki. The first western style house built in Japan

The Glover Garden is a collection of British entrepreneurial expat houses built on the same hillside overlooking the port of Nagasaki. All are very western in style and layout, and it was a bit like wandering through a well-to-do version of the Beamish museum back home!

Glover’s neighbours; Clockwise from top left: Former Alt Residence; Former Mitsubishi No. 2 Dock; The Sitting Room of the Former Alt Residence; Former Ringer House

It was really interesting to learn about the strong British-Japanese connection. We also learned that Madame Butterfly is set in the same hills of Nagasaki, and there’s a statue of Japan’s most famous Madame, Tamaki Miura, in the garden.

Statue of Tamaki Miura, Japan’s most famous Madame Butterfly

Mt Inasa

We took the cablecar to the peak of Mt Inasa, some 333m above the city. Because we were the only foreign tourists making the journey, we suspect the attendant played the English translation for our benefit, which we couldn’t help but laugh at – according to the recording, Nagasaki is in the top 3 night-time city port views in the world, alongside Hong Kong and Monaco. Yeah, right..

Nagasaki by night. One of the top 3 night-time city port views in the world. According to Nagasaki..

The view from the observation deck over the city was good, but Nagasaki lacks an iconic skyline that would make it immediately recognisable. As the sun started setting we settled down with a glass of wine at the mountain-top restaurant and watched the darkness descend and the lights come on.

According to the restaurant’s menu, Nagasaki’s local dish is “Turkey Rice”

What is “Turkey Rice”?
Turkey rice is a dish in which pork cutlet, pilaf and spaghetti are served together on one plate, Nagasaki’s local dish

In England, I guess it’d be called Turkey Rice Surprise.

Hypocenter, Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park

Having already visited Hiroshima’s Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park, we knew about the terrifyingly destructive power of atomic weapons, and we wanted to learn about the different consequences to Nagasaki.

Nagasaki 1945 – Before and after the atomic bombing (Source: Wikipedia)

Nagasaki is a series of narrow valleys and hillsides that feed into the main Urakami valley, which meant that while the atomic explosion was more powerful than that over Hiroshima, the geography confined the damage to a smaller area. This in turn meant there were far fewer injuries, but there were a similar number of fatalities.

Wall Clock stopped at 11:02, found 800 metres from the hypocenter and on display in the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum

Of the two, we preferred the layout, organisation and smaller size of Nagasaki’s Atomic Bomb Museum, and the more contemplative, greener and spacious Peace Park in Hiroshima.

The first room of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. Wreckage of destroyed buildings and screens showing photographs of the aftermath makes a powerful first impression

The main hall of the the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial building is a beautiful, modern, remembrance space that reminded us of the DT Suzuki Zen Museum in Kanazawa. We all but had the place to ourselves while we sat in quiet contemplation

The black triangular monument at the Nagasaki hypocenter

The Peace Statue at the Nagasaki Peace Park. The right hand pointing to the sky symbolises the threat of nuclear weapons, the flat left hand represents eternal peace and the eyes are closed in prayer for the souls of the victims

We found Nagasaki to be a historically rich destination, and we were pleased we made the effort to visit.

two year trip

Andrew and Julie's Travelling Adventures