Inujima

First published: 11th July 2013

Inujima.

Image from here.

Inujima was always something of a goal for me.

One of the many islands on the Seto Inland Sea - just off the coast of Kagawa prefecture - it is one of the many "art" islands and part of the Setouchi Trienale art festival. It has the distinction of actually being a part of Okayama prefecture (unlike Naoshima, Shodoshima, Oshima and Megijima in Kagawa prefecture which I had previously visited). The island is famous for copper refinery infrastructure which was closed down within a decade after it opened in 1909. The crumbling towers have been left intact on the island for visitors, with an interior facility converted entirely into a huge "walk-through" art exhibit.

The sea-wall and a lighthouse.

A crumbling copper-refinery tower on Inujima.

Inujima is notoriously difficult to access from Sunport, Takamatsu. It was originally the furthest away island from Takamatsu on the 2010 festival (though the festival has been extended in 2013 to more islands in the west), and as such had always held an elusive appeal to me. I decided it was worth making a trip to, and on Saturday 30th June, I did just that. Accompanying me were my lady-friend Angie Reynolds, frequent travel-companion Rainer Wessels, Julia Collie and Tetsuya Hongo, and Tomomi Andrez.

A long path leading from the ferry port to the refinery museum.

The Inujima team.

Travelling to the island was a big of a trek. To get there outside of Setouchi Trienale festival time, the quickest way we could discover from Takamatsu was to first take a ferry to Miyanoura port on Naoshima, then transfer to another ferry which made stops at both Teshima (another island) and, finally, Inujima. Unfortunately, the trip took around two and a half hours and cost around ¥4000 yen in total each way. A hell of a journey, and it was just as well we left in the very-early morning to arrive before lunch-time.

The skies were a little more grey than originally hoped, but we wouldn't let that spoil our day. We had actually set off with another companion; the ever-affable Dan Johnson. Sadly, when we discovered the high-cost of travelling from Naoshima to Inujima, Dan simply didn't have enough cash and opted to stay on Naoshima for a day of his own exploring. You can read about his own exploits in Naoshima in his three-part blog entries starting here. We posed for an obligatory shot at the the Naoshima red pumpkin before getting on our way - though there was only twenty minutes or so between our transfer, forcing us to sprint to the ferry port!

Once arriving (and having had plenty of time to play on my Nintendo DS), we finally arrived. Stepping into the ferry terminal, we found we could immediately buy our return tickets and tickets for the museum immediately. We actually found our first exhibit in that building; a thin screen with different videos of life across the island projected onto it from both sides. We started our journey with a gentle stroll down towards the Seirensho Art Museum. The island is incredibly small, and easy to travel by foot.

Julia and Rainer pose for the camera.

Bricks! The group comes to a halt to examine the ground.

We came to a halt in front of the entrance to the museum to find an area of ground and walls completely covered in brickwork. Pretty unusual. Rainer, with his background in engineering, was able to offer a quick analysis. The karami bricks were actually metallic, and had been composed of slag leftover when refining copper. They had already started to decay, and were clearly mixed in with bricks leftover from the construction of the smokestacks, too. There were many lying around which we tried to lift - they were actually pretty damn heavy.

Cobbled together.

Never before have bricks been this fascinating.

Bricking it.

We carried on to the entrance of the Seirensho Art Museum.

The Seirensho Art Museum, as previously mentioned, is a converted interior of the copper refinery. Every corridor has been stripped out and converted into a new, fascinating collection of exhibits that is on par with - and may be even better than - the stunning Chi Chu Museum on Naoshima (see my blog post on Naoshima for  more information on that amazing museum). The artwork was designed by Yanagi Yukinori, who you can read about on his personal website here.

A smokestack emerges from the roof of the Seirensho Art Museum.

The 'Solar Note' exhibit at the entrance of the Seirensho Art Museum.

Kanji characters dangle down around a box in the centre.

The bulk of the museum is composed of one winding corridor that uses mirrors to create a surreal experience, as an exhibit known as the 'Icarus Cell'. With an image of the sun on the wall behind you, and light directly in front of you, it appears as you walk down the first brickwork corridor that you are heading towards an exit. It becomes clear, as you approach, that you have to turn a corner. Turning, the light appears to now be coming from directly in front of you, while the sun is now directly behind you. The corridor plays this light-trick around every corner, and feels akin to being inside the video-game 'Portal'. One turn presents you with a glass panel that appears as if you're staring directly outside at a window. After a moment's realization, you quickly realize you're actually staring at a reflection of the sky. It's trippy... and amazing.

The winding corridors of the 'Icarus Cell'.

Image taken from here.

A little further into the museum are art displays that present parts of the interiors of houses, levitating in mid-air. These exhibits, 'Solar Rock' and 'Icarus Tower', are quite abstract but visually striking. They really do leave quite a remarkable impression. There was also an exhibit known as 'Slag Note' which showed a recreated interior of a home, where the shelves have been decorated with electronic appliances and plug sockets.

Solar Rock.

Icarus Tower

Images sourced from here.

The museum also included the 'Mirror Note' exhibit, which projected light against two mirrors to create a Matrix-style wall of running Japanese text on each wall. It was really quite remarkable... and we couldn't help but stick our faces and bodies into the beams to have the characters projected onto us!

Mirror Note.
Image taken from here.

The museum also featured a cafe, but it was too early in the day to stop for lunch just yet. However, we found ourselves caught there as elderly Japanese woman stopped to try to explain to Tetsuya (in Japanese) the composition of the bricks and the history of the factory. Passionate about her subject, she spoke for about twenty minutes while we nodded and smiled. Tetsuya, an US American, understood most of what was being said, but the woman had clearly mistaken him for a Japanese guy and seemed shocked when Tetsuya explained he was actually from the USA.

We spent a little bit of time exploring the area around the factory. There were countless crumbling smokestacks across the skyline, and a beautiful quarry which sharp angles cut into the ground. Rainer described it best as looking a bit like a collapsed civilization. The decay and the resurgence of nature around it was really quite magical.

Crumbling smokestacks.

The group look out on the local scenery.

Quarry.

Tetsuya discovers a praying mantis on the path.

We spent a fair bit of time relaxing and messing around on the path, stopping frequently to admire the scenery. The day was hot - as usual in Japanese Summer - and it was approaching midday. We headed to a small local cafe with a surprisingly large menu on the walk back.

I was surprised by how many customers were actually popping in - it was thriving! The island seemed to be becoming immensely popular as the afternoon came in, and I was glad we had arrived early to beat some of the queues. A small problem occurred when Angie lost her phone, but it was swiftly recovered after being handed into the visitor centre.

Julia and Tetsuya.

Julia wanted to be lifted in order to see inside the well.

Chillin' with Rainer.

Tetsuya takes a moment to breathe.

After stopping for lunch, we took a bit of a break to relax by the coast. Everyone was feeling in need of a bit of a rest after the heat and the food. Rainer found a ball by the coast, which he and Angie repeatedly kicked into the sea to see who could kick it the furthest (the waves kept bringing the ball back for repeated attempts).

Angie and Rainer kick the ball into the waves.

Tetsuya's shows off his makeshift katana

while Angie struggles to control her hair in the wind.

We soon made our way around the other side of the island. Scattered in different locations were the various "art-house" projects, similar to those on Naoshima. There were some amazing exhibits scattered across the island. We were first struck by the F-Art House: a huge exhibit by Kazuyo Sejima, contained in a glass room which looked like a giant cauliflower had taken over a private residence. This exhibit was intended to reflect the origin of the universe, flowing out in different directions, and it was certainly an an impressive visual metaphor. The exhibit was conjoined to two rooms on each side, which were meant to represent the work of evolution as small shapes came together to form recognizable life. As an atheist I really appreciated the beauty being shown in this model of evolution, but it was somewhat negated when I accidentally banged by head on one of the doorways.

The F-Art House.
Images sourced from here.

Another particular highlight involved some glass structures which prevented the transfer of sound. It took a great deal of shouting when standing on one side to be heard on the other. It was bizarre to suddenly realize - without warning - that we couldn't hear what the people on the other side were saying.

Communication breakdown!

You could sing anything you wanted in here and not be heard.

Probably our favourite exhibit may have been the Nakanotani Gazebo, if only for the opportunity to rest our tired feet after walking!

The Nakatani Gazebo. A much-needed rest after being on our feet for most of the day!

The last two exhibits we encountered were something of an oddity. Both examples of the "Art House" projects, one featured a small movie called 'The Master and the Slave' which played on loop inside a house. The movie featured two men playing baseball with rocks, interspersed with cosmological imagery. It was very abstract and I'm not sure any of our party were able to interpret the author's intent or any other meaning from it (it was nicely shot, though). The other house project was a pale white room... with a window. And a garden. Not quite sure what was going on there, either. We must have missed something.

With the time for the departure of the last ferry approaching (a very early 3pm) We made our way back to the harbour area - but not before stopping to clamber over some rocks. Rainer particularly enjoys physical challenges like these, and made a mission of making it as far across the rocks as he could. We all got involved, though Tomomi thought it was a tad dangerous.

Fun on the rocks.

As we waited for the ferry, Angie and I decided to try some of the local "peach juice" being offered in the ferry terminal cafe. After all, as I mentioned before, Okayama prefecture is famous for it's peaches. Sadly, our order must have been confused, as we ended up drinking Ginger Ale.

Peach juice?

We drank more than half of our drinks each - both thinking that it was a very unusual peach flavour - before Tomomi and Rainer tasted the drink and realized what had happened. Oh well. Still, it was nice Ginger Ale.

A small ant statue rests on the wall of a local house in the village.

"Inujima" on the harbour wall.

3pm came, and we boarded the first of our two ferries back to Takamatsu. We were all a bit exhausted by the long travel time (another two and a half hours on boats), and most people fell asleep on the boat. That said, we all sat outside at the rear of the boat, and it wasn't long before we were all soaked - which certainly woke us up. When we arrived at Naoshima, we had just over half an hour to kill, during which time I decided to introduce Tetsuya, Julia and Rainer to the wonders of the James Bond museum and the locally-made Bond tribute movie "From Naoshima with Love". Disbelief certainly set in fast. An amusing end to a very enjoyable (but lengthy) day.

Bewilderment sets in with "From Naoshima with Love."

It may be a long journey to get there, but Inujima is highly recommended.

Inujima certainly isn't easy to get to if you're coming from Takamatsu. That's no reason not to come, though.  Our party had a wonderful day out, and I'd implore anyone to pop over to this little island - especially if you're coming from Okayama. It's a beautiful and peaceful little island, and a contender for having the best art exhibits out of all the exhibitions on the Seto Inland Sea. Check it out.

Megijima Curry Festival 2012

Mary and Lily serve incorrectly labelled Phillipines curry.

On a rather sunny Sunday morning, a few of the ALTs popped over to Megijima to help out at the annual local curry festival.

Megijima is one of the many Seto inland sea islands, along with Naoshima and Shodoshima, which I've mentioned a few times before. I'd never been to the island yet, despite it being the closest of these islands to Takamatsu, so I was looking forward to making my way over. I was busy during the morning, however, but I managed to pop over just around about lunch time around about the time the festival kicked off. The JETs who had arrived prior had managed to squeeze in a small trip to the famous caves that are filled with statues of demons (!), which are inspired by the famous Momotaro story.

The ferry port at Megijima.

Megijima is synonymous with ogres.

The festival took place by the local beach near the ferry port, with plenty of stalls set up with volunteers sharing their wares. The curry was all made by local chefs, with many varieties available. Attendees were given score cards which were stamped off to ensure that everyone got to try all of the curries at least once. Most of us only had a few, though, because inevitably you can only eat so much curry, and there were around fifteen or so available.

Curry Festival!

John and Yas soak up the atmosphere.

Curry!

Cool drinks aplenty.

This guy is spreading water for some reason.

Some of the ALTs were also putting time aside to help out serving the curry themselves (though I wasn't down to volunteer, so was free to walk about at my leisure!).

Relaxing by the beach.

Reflecting in Stephen's shades.

There was also a stage where some musicians and dancers were showing off their skills. Fairly entertaining, and nice to have some live music. A few were certainly very passionate.

Mad skillz.

As the festival started to die down, most of the ALTs made a sort of base next to the coast by a seated area. The rest of the afternoon was spent with people running in and out of the water and relaxing with drinks (and shaved ice!). It was a very refreshing way to spend the day, though sadly I'd forgotten my own swimming trunks! There were even board games in supply.

Socialising.

Fun in the sun.

Ben's animal magnetism lures in the camera lens.

Beer and board games.

Overall, just a very peaceful Summer's day.