Today started with a loud knock on my guestroom door, which I, pretending to be a rude American, ignored....repeatedly. Stuffing my earplugs deeper into my ears I rolled over and tried to push back the thoughts that there could in reality be some kind of emergency. But I had some feeling it was either a) the woman running the hostel or b) two Japanese women who the woman running the hostel had insisted I visit Naoshima with. I wanted to avoid this whole situation, so I pretended to sleep. It was 6:30AM for GOODNESS SAKES! Who wakes a guest up BEFORE 7AM?!?!?!
Finally, I got up and within moments she was at the door again. In broken english and lots of Japanese she explained something about breakfast at a restraunt where the other two girls were and a bus that left at 7:37am. Then something else at 9:30am and 11am. I wasn`t sure. I had decided the night before to spend the AM in Kurashiki since it was too dark to see the night before, then head over to Naoshima. I was feeling very stubborn about this plan and so I took this woman to be very pushy and rude. She left telling me to hurry. I didn`t want to hurry. I didn:t want to travel there with two Japanese women. I didn:t want to change my plans.
Just as I was changing she came back. This time she explained with A LOT more english and slower and I understood better. There would be a bus that left at 7:37am that would cut the journey to the ferry to Naoshima in half. It was 15mins walk from here. The other two women were eating breakfast now and taking this bus. She showed me how to get there and said this is what I better do. She told me to hurry again and left. It suddently dawned me (and even more so throughout the day) that she was really, really trying to help me and that I needed to let go of my plans and try to catch this bus, which left in 25 minutes. When I left the hostel I had to turn a 15min walk into a 10min one (with my fully loaded backpack) and also hope that the bus was running late. As I half walked-half ran, I thought only that if I make it, I make it, if not I don`t. But somehow I did, I even beat the bus (which was late) by a few minutes.. And there were the two women from my hostel, smiling and friendly, and surprising me with perfect English.
I immediately liked them both and we chatted on the bus. Yoko had better English and I also found out she studied in Mexico City (wow!) and spoke Spanish! Her accent was very good. Her friend was very excited to ask me questions and I found out on our journey had visited Tibet several times to sightsee but is also very interested in their situation. She and I shared the fact of currently being unemployed! Yoko and I shared not knowing much about our own pop culture (they quizzed me about U.S. TV shows)!
I think we all really enjoyed each other`s company and talking about our different countries. They asked if I had been to a public bath and I told them my story. We talked about how the Japanese like to bathe with other people but hate the idea of a nude beach and I said maybe we are the opposite, but that in the US we certainly do not like the idea of bathing with other people. We also talked about fashion and trends. Really they ended up being the sweetest girls and they made the trip to Naoshima (which included a bus to a train to a one hour wait to a ferry) a lot more fun, memorable, and certainly easier for me. I realized it was pretty improbable I would have made the transfers needed for this journey on my own. I told them it was quite a different experience to be with people who could read and communicate. When we went our seperate ways we waved enthusiastically as I left on a town bus to the museum and I just felt filled up from the experience and so happy and grateful to the woman who ran the hostel, who had killed my stubborness with sincere kindness and gotten me here!
I spent the rest of the day touring the art, which the island is famous for. I was not allowed to take photos at any of the exhibitions but I can say that the ChiChu Art Museum while austere and simple in its design (cement and metal) and holding only a small number of art pieces, it is the most unique and satisfying museum I have ever visited! I walked around smiling the whole way (you were not supposed to make any noise either). Some exhibits are visited only alone and I was escored by an attendant. It was incredible. Walking this underground museum designed by architect/artist Tadao Ando, lit only with natural light, was the experience and the art! Here is a link to google pictures of the museum so you can get some idea for what I am talking about.
From here I dipped into the Benesse House, which boasts its unique museum-hotel concept that allows guests to tour the museum after closing. I, however, as a non-guest was dispointed to find out the main attractions I wanted to see were guests only. The contemporary art collection in the museum was nice but was nothing to compare to the ChiChu Art Museum. One piece that really struck me though was called `World Flag Ant Farm` and consisted of a hundred or so world flag made from sand in seperate plexi-glass retangles (each one resembling a smallant farm) and connected with tubing. Scatterred through were close up videos of the ants who had dug tunnels through these flags,moving the different colored sand around. Today, the ants were dead but tunnels wove through the flags, collapsing some to a pile of mixed up colors. I thought it was rather original, to say the least.
Next on my agenda was the Art House Project, also by Benesse House. This was a half a dozen traditional Japanese dwellings, which had been turned into art installations. The two most striking were 1) a house whose Tatami mats had been replaced by a shallow pond, which was lit by many many LED numerals changing at different speeds. There was also a slight, rippling in the water to add to the effect, and 2) an installation by James Turrell (also featured at the ChiChuArtMuseum. I waited 5 or so minutes to enter with a group. I entered in total darkness, so dark I was shown to run my hand along the wall and I could not see the guide in front of me. We were guided to a bench and instructed to stare into the dark ahead of us and wait to see lights. My eyes began to do very strange things and the room appeared emmense. After about 10mins of straining my eyes at one small light light fuzzy images began to appear and move. It was very obscure but it appeared to be scenese of driving around the island, they moved pulling me into the scene. They ended and the small amount of light ahead began to be obscured by fuzzy black spots, almost as if in my eyes, obscuring the view. We were then after a few minutes told to get up and walk forward in the dark toward the light. The room still appeared emmense and I thought I had walked a long way towards the light when suddenly I cam up against a wall where the darkness ended and light began. Everyone stared into the light and we stuck our hands out into it and they appeared pitch black, my hand only, not my clothes. Finally, when we were allowed to turn back, it was no longer dark, even though nothing in the room had been changed and I could see the benches and the entrance and how small the room was. It was really pretty incredible.
My last stop was I <3 YU, Naoshima`s ecclectic (i taught by Japanese friends this word) public bath, where by no coincidence i met my Japanese friends in the middle of undressing. We were all much more bashful this time, or maybe only I was. A public bath is one of those places I am keen on not knowing anyone. But at least this was now my third trip to a public bath, I felt like a seasoned veteran---it was pretty unevetful (besides being painfully hottt) but I certainly wasn:t going to make any note-worthy mistakes after my first publicn bath experience!
It took me quite a bit to get back from the island and onto the Shinkansen (I splurged on the bullet train which would cut the trip to Hiroshima down to 35mins from 3 hours) but I arrived safely and EXHAUSTED at the World Friendship Center, Hiroshima, where I am gratiously being hosted by the two Brethren Volunteers there. I was connected with them through the BVS director, who is currently recruiting me for a position in Honduras.
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