More Light in Sepia

Jimmy, a Japanese Montage

Konnichiwa bitches! Jimmy G at his best.







What, Jimmy in the SAND????








Resting.

Me and a Squash

Squash

Naoshima style art.

I do love this picture.

Back at the Benesse House

More art at the house . . . this was a series of flags made from what looks like ant farms. I don't think it was but that's what it reminded me of - it is sand inside. Oh, and this is a DANISH FLAG!

Museum

This is where we would eat an amazing 7 course traditional Japanese meal, mostly raw fish or some variation of that theme.

I loved these views as we ate and watched the sun go down. Ando's architecture is best observed under a number of different types of light. I really enjoyed this place.





















This one is for Uncle Dan, Jimmy didn't want to get hassled about having no pictures of me! Good thing Uncle Dan has my back!

Wind Mobile

These long spears rotated and moved with the wind. It was very relaxing and beautiful to watch.






This next picture is just to the right of the mobile. I love the unseamed transition between sculpture/man made structure and nature.

Use of Light

Solar Powered

This is a typical shot of housing in Naoshima, Japan. Population 3600. Powered by Sol!

Ferry

The ferry we took between Port Uno and Naoshima.

Noashima art

Wait, am I still at Burning Man? Art you can walk into?

Jimmy Between Balls

Naoshima - the little town

There were little alleys and houses that typify much of smaller, rural Japan (i think!). There are little shrines and gardens on each little street of this small island that are moving and beautiful.










You may turn a corner here and see a shrine or turn a corner here and see a lovely home there.








Very beautiful, very lived in terrain.









Here is one with me in it!

Naoshima Port and Ferry

This was our entry point to Noashima and exit point. We did have to go into Port Uno one time during our stay. I had made our Shenkansan (bullet train) tickets for 9:00 AM Saturday morning from Okayama (about 2 hrs away from Noashima by bus and ferry). Once we arrived, I realized the first ferry off the island was not until 8:52! So we took a trek into town and changed our tickets.


This is the primary ferry we take back and forth between Naoshima and Uno.







On our way back we had the opportunity to take a passenger ferry, a much smaller ferry.

Wee Vehicles

The dominant car in Japan is a very, very small version of a little mini-van. It is amazing to think this whole country operates out of vehicles so small we couldn't get them here.

It is still Sunday night and after a three hour nap I still cannot sleep. I do love these little vehicles.

Udon Noodles

We found out from Daniel that where we were going in Japan was famous for the Udon Noodle. And yes, you are supposed to slurp your noodles, it shows the cook you are enjoying them (i think). I think Jimmy is illustrating it well here!

With this said and the cost of food at the Benesse House we did venture out into the town for other food and drink. Despite the admonishment from the Naoshima tourist board to simply bring along a Japanese speaker (easier said than done, I did not talk to anyone in English the entire time we were there) we did go to the smaller establishments and successfully (usually with the help of strangers!) order some great food. On the other hand, in every room there was a constant supply of hot water in pumps available for free. So, we would also purchase the much better quality equivalent of "Cup of Soup" and enjoy noodles in bed!

I Love Clean

There were a lot of wonderful language things that just made you laugh. I am sure my cousin Wendy can offer insight into this but the stereotype about translations into English were pretty true and often very funny. I hope it does not make it seem I am making fun of this. I would have no right to given my destruction of the Japanese language while I was there! Of course your own language is always easier than someone elses! I hope someone out there is blogging about this American who walked up to them at the Port Uno bus station and said "Kudasai" "bas Okyama" "Shenkasen." Which translates: "Please, bus Okayama, bullet train?" To which I was kindly helped to the appropriate bus!

This sign is great, I am not sure you can read the text, if not I will post it again with the verbage but it is a good example of what I am talking about.

There was a brochure that helped you navigate the Naoshima island. Have I emphasized enough how remote this was? We kept joking about how Jimmy was 100% of the Mexican population on the island (no joke, the population was 3600 residents and then tourists) and how I was probably about 85% of the white population. Anyway, still this is a city's official tourist information and there were some humorous portions. The best was right on the cover under the heading NOTICE. These are direct quotes:

-LANGUAGE COPES
There are not many English speakers on Naoshima. THerefore recommended for English speaking visitors take the following precautions. Travel with a japanese speaker. Ask travel agent to make reservation for you. Email Town-Naoshima Tourism Association with further inquiries.

-FOREIGN CURRENCIES ARE NOT AVAILABLE
Currency exchange is unable in Naoshima. Credit cards are available at Benesse House, Chichu Art Museum, and nowhere else.

Naoshima Coast

The Naoshima Coast was beautiful. I have to admit, it looked a lot like the California Coast! What a great reminder, no matter where you go people are people and in many ways the land is the land. The building at the top of this photo is one of the museums. If you did a traditional Japanese dinner, you dined in the museum. It was incredible. VERY EXPENSIVE, so something we only did twice, but the food was amazing. The local economy is fishing so we had some of the best sushi and other traditional Japanese food I have ever eaten.

This is a picture from the pier you will see pictures of later of the Benesse House.







The weather was hot and humid, surpirsingly similar to Houston! They were having a heat wave of all things. The last day we were there, probably because of the typhoon, the temperature dropped and there was a lot more wind.

View from Our Room

I will share some pictures of our room. All these buildings were designed by Ando - I spelled it wrong earlier it is actually Tadao Ando. Here is the link to his information and list of works on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadao_Ando

Anyway, it is hard to capture the power of his work on film. I will share here our room and the views from it, but so much is lost in the process. It was such a pleasure to have a space to be in and not feel like you were missing out on anything. It was an important part of us just being able to relax.

You walk in the door to the room and you can see all the way down the hall and out the large window/door that leads to the patio and out onto this view.

This picture is of the ceiling - which emphasizes how important natural light is to the room








This is the view from the patio down to the door. There are so many little details that led to excellent use of space, those are very hard to translate through these photos.








This was the bar/ tea area/ sink with storage space underneath and above.










These are hooks and a place for shoes that is closed off by a rolling door.

Japanese T-shirts with American Words

There is an interesting phenomena in Japan, that perhaps someone more enlightened than I can explain. They love American words on t-shirts but often it doesn't make sense. Maybe there is something lost in the translation? Or maybe it is just like all the bad Japanese characters people in America get as tattoos that end up not meaning what they think it means.

Anyway, we do have an ongoing list of befuddling words on Japanese t-shirts. I think the one that won top prize was:

MILKSHAKES AND PIMP JUICE

But the complete list is as follows (this is a short list of course, we didn't start documenting them until late in the trip):

THROW IS IT A MIRACLE

I LOVE HAPPY

BLANK GENERATION

I LOVE DEER FORREST OF TREASURE

DELICIOUS GIRL, DELICIOUS WORLD

INHABITANT 19

MUCHOHOLIC

LETS CRAZY YOU

BEAT FOR THE BEACH

FAIRIES HEARD THE VOICE FROM THE REAR

Getting to Naoshima

Naoshima is a beautiful island in the southern part of Japan. I was entirely in charge of getting us from point A to point B, at Jimmy's request. So in a country that does not speak much English, even in Tokyo, I was on my own navigating the Shenkansen (Bullet train) from Tokyo to Okayama, the bus from Okayama to Port Uno and the ferry from Port Uno to Naoshima. But we got there without a hitch. My Japanese was horrible, but as my cousin Wendy said, they were very helpful as long as I was trying. We really had no problems getting there.

Our destination is the Benesse House - an art project done by Takeo Ando, a Japanese architect that we got turned on to from (of all places) the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum. We visited the museum and didn't remember much about the art but loved the experience of the building itself. That is what we found in Naoshima. Although, I must say it is difficult to translate the beauty in pictures - the space is much better experienced in person. Again, many of my pictures of the Benesse House itself are on Jimmy's computer and will have to wait!

Tokyo

Although this picture was actually taken at the end of the trip, it is one of my favorite of Tokyo. It is an amazing city. Completely overwhelmingly huge, populated, a constant barrage of commerce and buildings. But charming and personal as well.

Anyway, we spent two nights in Tokyo before heading out to Naoshima. The first night was mostly sleeping off the jet lag. The next day we went to Yoyogi park (pictures to follow - they are on Jimmy's computer still in Japan!), which was a real trip. I will explain more when I get the pictures but it was definately worth the trip.

That night we went out to some amazing sushi with a guy jimmy works with and his girlfriend. It was great food and good company. They taught us a bunch of important Japanese customs which saved us some embarrassment down the line.

The next morning we were off to Naoshima.

Japan Trip 2007

It is kind of a cop out to use a blog for something like this, isn't that what Snapfish and Ofoto are for? But it is easy enough and it does give you a little more text than you would get with those options.

It is Sunday, 5:06 PM. I left Tokyo today at 3:44 PM Sunday and arrived at 1:44 PM Sunday. I stayed awake the whole flight (save a 30 minute cat nap) and am still up. In Tokyo it is just now hitting about 5:00 AM. Jimmy should be waking up soon.

To say I am tired and a bit loopy is really putting it mildly. Most of these pictures will speak for themselves so I will not do too much narrating.