30 April 2009

Checkout was at 11am, so I was up and ready by 10:30am. I got a really good night’s rest last night since the bed was big and comfortable. We met in the lobby but were held up a bit since an incident happened last night with some of my classmates. Basically, we were hanging out in two different groups: eleven people were up in the Oval Building drinking and the other seven people were in my room watching movies and just hanging out. Supposedly, the eleven drunk people broke into the hot tub at the hotel and ended up getting caught. Since the hotel is also a museum, the hot tub and surrounding area require reservations and is considered a piece of artwork. Basically, Norio and Don had a lot of explaining and apologizing to do, but the hotel has thus far taken no action against anyone. It really made the dynamic of our group really awkward since the seven of us who weren’t drinking or involved were still classified with everyone who was. After leaving the hotel, we went as a group to the Chichu Art Museum. I’m really glad that we were still able to at least go to that museum since it turned out to be the best museum I have ever been to so far in my life. The building itself was done by Tadao Ando, and the spaces were absolutely amazing. Within the museum, there were four Claude Monet pieces: Water-Lily Pond 1915-26, Water Lilies, Water-Lily Pond 1917-19, and Water Lilies Reflections of Weeping Willows. They were breathtaking, and I absolutely love Monet’s works. On top of that, there were three installations by James Turrell, a master of manipulation of light and illusion. There was the Afrum Pale Blue, Open Field, and Open Sky. Afrum Pale Blue is one of my all-time favorites, and I still can’t believe I was able to see it in person! Finally, there was an installation by Walter De Maria call “Time/Timeless/No Time”. This took up an entire room and was really cool to walk through.
After finishing up with the Chichu Art Museum, Don asked the eleven people who were involved with the incident last night to leave the island and head to our next destination in Himeji. The remaining seven of us, eight including Don, grabbed some lunch at a small vegetarian restaurant. I ordered somen, and it was really good, especially since all of the noodle dishes I have had so far have been hot. Afterwards, we rushed to see the six Art Houses located on the island. Art Houses are basically houses that have been restored and transformed into works of art by artists. The six we visited were Kadoya by Tatsuo Miyajima, Minamidera by James Turrell and Tadao Ando, Go’o Shrine by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Ishibashi by Hiroshi Senju, Gokaisho by Yoshihiro Suda, and Haisha by Shinro Ohtake. Each of the Art Houses were completely different and really interesting. Minamidera was probably my favorite one out of the six houses since it was done by two of my favorite designers.
By the time we were done with the Art Houses, it was almost 5:00pm. We took the Benesse House shuttle back to the Park Building to get our bags, then took the shuttle to the port to hop on the ferry. Once we docked in Uno, we had about an hour to kill before our train would leave for Okayama. We all split up for food since it was the most time efficient. Derrick and I decided to go to a ramen place since we both like it a lot. The place only had bar seating, and their menu was hung above the seats. Nothing was written in English, and there were no pictures. Basically, Derrick and I ended up just pointing to a ramen dish that someone else already had. It was pretty hilarious. We had no idea what we were getting, but in the end, it turned out to be really really good. We didn’t even know how much it cost, so since we both got the same dish, we both put in 1,000 yen and split the change. The bowl of ramen ended up being only 630 yen. It was a good price. We caught the train for an hour back to Okayama, then jumped on the Shinkansen for one stop to arrive safely in Himeji. We checked into the Toyoko Inn, and the rest of the night we relaxed. My right knee is kind of sore from all the walking and hiking I have done recently, so I hope the rest will allow it to heal so it won’t be so painful to walk tomorrow.