Okayama and Naoshima

After Miyajima we went to Okayama. We saw one of the most famous gardens in Japan. Unfortunately, that same day, about 300 schoolkids saw it too. The garden was awesome. The schoolkids were not. Although they weren't too bad, noise and chaos filled the open space of the garden. We also saw a bulding done by the architect who designed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It was from about a decade after the Hiroshima building. We also walked along a canal and saw a western style old school japanese house and a really cool pottery place. The pottery was unique to the area using clay dug from the area. Each piece is unique based on the clay used. No glazing is applied to the pottery. Color and texture variations come from the mineral and chemical differences in each piece of clay as well as the position in the kiln when fired.

After Okayama, we went to Naoshima. Naoshima is a small island, where Tadao Ando has multiple works. We stayed at the Benesse House in the Oval, which is designed by Tadao Ando. We also went to the ChuChi Art Museum designed by Tadao Ando with input from James Turrell and another artist whos works make up the museum. There is also a room housing several Monets. The James Turrell installations were amazing. He had an open sky room, a small corner light installation, and a room that you could enter called the open field. The room was insane. It was by far the coolest art installation I have ever experienced. First you wait in a small room with a large granite stairset leading up toward one wall. On the wall, there appears to be a rectangular screen, but you soon realize it isnt a screen. It is an opening. The walls taper to a very thin edge aroung the opening. It is hard to tell that it is even there. The room is bathed in light from a light bar running over the opening and down both sides around it. The light is blue. The whole experience is nuts. It was the best. All the art was pretty cool. It didn't compete with the architecture, which was also really cool. It was probably the best museum I have visited.
After Naoshima, we caught the ferry back to the mainland and a couple trains to Himeji where we will spend our last day before heading to Tokyo tomorrow.