Blogs from Kagawa, Japan, Asia

The only thing worse than being sick is being sick and having to travel. At least it wasn't an airplane with a headcold. So getting to Naoshima sucked. It also kinda sucked being there because we weren't prepared for literally everything to be sold out or booked up. We arrived a little before noon and found ourselves completely locked out of our hostel with no place to leave luggage and they were totally nonresponsive. There were no bike rentals until the next day either. So we made reservations, but we were kinda stuck because we wanted to go check some stuff out, but the last checkin for our hostel was 7pm and the earliest 4pm and headed out we risked missing both. This is particularly because the public transportation is TERRIBLE on the island and between ... read more

Friday, 28th June 2019 From Yashima, I made a trip back to the city centre where the Takamatsu Symbol Tower is located. Towering 30th stories above ground level, there is a public observatory where free views of the city could be had. Following which, I took a relatively late lunch at one of the restaurants located at the station arcade which served the famed Sanuki Udon. It was a lovely meal indeed. After lunch, I took a walk around the waterfront which formed part of the "Support Takamatsu District". Also located within close proximity are the castle grounds as well as a unique artwork known as the Liminal Air Core next to the port district. On my way back to Honshu island, I decided to make a stopover at Utazu since this is the only other ... read more

Went to Shikoku-island in order to eat a lot. Shikoku, and it's most nothern prefecture Kagawa a famous for Udon-noodels, which I love a lot. So I decided to go on Udon-Tours! But first stop was Tokushima-prefecture. A city called Naruto, which maybe a lot of people know as the name of a famous anime/manga is known for the spirals that circle under the bridge that connects shikoku and the main island of japan. next stop Kagawa and it's Udon! went to a few shops listed in the guidebook and ate a lot. After that we went on to konira-san, a famous shrine located at the top of a mountain. You have to climb up a lot of steep steps BUT what is waiting on top is said to be happiness so it is worth it! ... read more

We zijn nu toegekomen aan het hoogtepunt van onze reis: Naoshime en Benesse House. Het eiland draait om kunst, vooral westerse kunst en de architect Tadao Ando. Het hotel waar we verblijven is een onderdeel van het museum Bij aankomst met de veerpont stond het busje om ons naar het hotel te rijden al klaar. Het gedeelte (Park) waar wij onze kamer is, ligt niet aan maar ongeveer een 500 meter vanaf het museum. Inchecken, koffers achterlaten want we mochten onze kamer nog niet in en het terrein verkennen. De eerste locatie waar we naar liepen was ThePumpkin. In de tuin die we passeerde stonden een aantal beeldhouwwerken van diverse kunstenaars waaronder onze eigen Karel Appel. Tussen ons hotelgedeelte en het museum kwamen we onder andere een van de prachtige kunstwerken van Walter deMarie. Drie granieten ... read more

The isn't a great deal to tell about this city itself. It is relatively small, 430,000 people, and is on the island of Shikoku. It is a bit ugly and not very lively. We visited the city for just one night as a stopover on the way to Naoshima and to see the garden Ritsurin-koen. The garden was pretty amazing, full of beautifully twisted pine trees, meandering paths and ponds full of colorful carp. We could tell we were really deep in the heartland of Japan because few people spoke English and there was little written English (Romanji) most everything was in Kanji. So that made buying a tram ticket out to the garden a challenge. Especially since there was no English button on the machine. We asked someone for help and they went to the ... read more