Today starts off with a breakfast that is quite good but spirals in a few different directions.

Let’s start at 12:00 on the plate :

12:00 – carrot roll + brioche roll
1:00 – French toast
5:00 – French toast
6:00 – dashimaki (rolled omelette – dashi is mixed into the egg mixture before it’s cooked)
6:35 – grated daikon with soy sauce (to be eaten with dashimaki)
8:00 – grilled fish 10:00 bean sprout and mushroom namul (Korean)
10:00 – pickled bamboo shoots

The namul and dashimaki were the best.

Today we leave Okayama for Naoshima – an island dedicated to art installations and architecture. The route is not too complicated.

First take the train from a Okayama to Uno, then a ferry from Uno to Naoshima.

For a while, we stand at the wrong train “plate-form”.

A girl – perhaps 15 or 16 – dressed in a school uniform, tells us which train to board in order to reach our final stop. I have no idea how she knows where we’re going but she does.

She boards the same train we do. Before the train pulls off, she notices I’m still standing. She leaves her seat at the front of the carriage and comes over to show me that there is a seat near me which can be pulled down. She does it for me and points to it to tell me to sit.

Art is everywhere.

Where we’re heading is quite rural. The train zips past farms and dozens of persimmon trees totally leafless but ladened with fruit.

We arrive in Uno. After a two minute walk from the train station to the ticket office, we buy two one-way tickets to Naoshima. We ain’t coming back!

As with most forms of public transportation in Japan, the ferry is dead on-time.

We board Thunder Bird and we’re off!

A Yayoi Kusama gourd is at the ferry terminal, big and bright red and jubilant against a grey sky.

Kusama is big on this island. Cars, busses, even a ferry sport polka-dots.

We check into our hotel and I’m positively shaking with excitement.

Designed by Tadao Ando, this place is all about light, shadows, lines and space. Ando never formally trained as an architect but his oeuvre is worldwide and immense.

Tomorrow will be a big art day. I hope you’re ready.

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