Exploring Naoshima Island, Japan

Exploring Naoshima Island, Japan

[Music] Hey, this is Josh from BrandsWalk back at it again with another video. Today I’m here in Naosima Island on the coast of southern Japan between Kyoto and Hiroshima. Being a lover of all things Japanese art and architecture, this place has been on my bucket list for years. Nshim Island was once home to fishermen during its heyday. However, the island was faced with depopulation among other prominent issues. So, in 1985, a businessman by the name of Tetssuiko Fukutake and his son So Ichiro sought out to revitalize the island in collaboration with the mayor, transforming the once depressive state of the island to a cultural and art hub frequented by travelers around the world today. In 1989, the Benesse art site was established and collaborated directly with famed architect Tadaw Ando to grow and build museums around the island with traction steadily growing. In 1994, Yayo Kusama presented her first work on the island, the yellow pumpkin. Now, in terms of getting here, I took the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Okyama Station, which took a little over 3 hours. From Okama station, I took an hour local train to Uno Port where my accommodation was located during my trip. So, all in all, it’s about 4 hours getting here from Tokyo Station. Getting to the island itself is pretty straightforward. You just have to take the 20-minute ferry from Uno Ferry Port. And there’s a boat that transits every hour to Naima with the first ferry at 6:10 a.m. and the last ferry at 8:25 p.m. I would greatly advise that you rent a bike on the island or through your hotel accommodation. Getting to all the museums is kind of tricky by car unless you rent or have your own tour bus. And I found that the most enjoyable way to enjoy the scenic landscapes is through biking. So, please do keep that in mind. So, right now we just got to the port at Naoshima Island. So, today we’re just going to go check out some coffee shops, uh, art museums, and I’ll be bringing along the Fra Robin Aiscoco 16 backpack with me throughout the day just to show you guys what it’s like to bring around this backpack on kind of like these smaller day trip scenarios. Backpack is super lightweight. It’s small, compact, and it fits pretty much all the essentials I need. Yeah. So, we’re going to just be biking around the whole island and kind of yeah, checking it out. So, let’s get started. Okay, so the pumpkin right behind me is by renowned Japanese artist uh Yayoi Kusama. And this is one of two pumpkins featured on Naosima Island. Um, the most famous one is is of course the yellow pumpkin and it’s right here on the port of Naoshima. It was opened in 1994 as part of the open air out of bounds exhibition. All of Kusama’s pumpkins um are there to symbolize uh solace and comfort um in response to all the hardships she faced throughout her life. And yeah, so this is really cool to see here in Naoshima as kind of like a welcoming um first impression of the island. So yeah, let’s go to the next spot. [Music] The first place I want to stop by on the island is called Hifum Coffee. I was recommended this spot as it’s one of the first few coffee roaster spots here in Naoshima. I ordered a nice flat white which was extremely smooth tasting and perfect for today’s 90° weather. The barista kindly explained to me that the beans were all locally sourced and ground here in the shop every morning. So, if you find yourself in Naoshima and love a good cup of coffee, I would definitely recommend giving this place a try. [Music] All right. So, right now we’re at our first museum location here in Naoshima. And this one is called the Benessi House Museum. And this museum was designed by famed Japanese architect Tadada Ando. And basically the whole purpose of this by Ando was that he wanted to combine nature, art, architecture all in one harmonious structure. Um, this is probably one of the more beautiful art museums I’ve been to in my lifetime. There’s these beautiful mountains in the background, this oceancape. So yeah, let’s go and check it out. The Benessi House Museum was built in 1992 and is known for its striking visual architecture that overlooks the Japanese Setto Inland Sea. Ando’s vision, like most of his works here on the island, is to harmonize the surrounding naturecapes with the simplistic forms of his concrete structures. So the way the museum is laid out gives visitors really the optimal vantage point for the seascape because of the use of long linear glass windows. [Music] So first impressions of the Benessi house art museum is that uh it’s pretty beautiful. Everything has that signature tadada design to it. Um right now I’m in this outdoor patio area. I’m trying to talk low right now cuz I don’t want to disturb the uh guests and the staff here. So, for lunch, I enjoyed the traditional Japanese beef bento set found in the museum’s main restaurant. All in all, the Benessi House Museum was a pretty solid visit. I enjoyed all of the artworks displayed and it was just a very relaxing atmosphere. And also, being one of the main museums here on the island, I would definitely recommend you book your tickets in advance. Okay, so we just finished with the Benessie House Museum and now we’re going to go check out the next one which is called Okay, so we finally made it to the new museum here in Nosima. Super hot outside. Let’s go indoors. Okay, so the new museum just opened uh this spring of 2025 and is also designed by architect Tada and uh this is actually his 10th project um on Nima Island. And right now I’m sitting at the museum cafe uh at the entrance and it’s just extremely beautiful. Um it’s right by the water. You can see how the architecture really perfectly nests inside nature. um with his iconic concrete uh angular structures. So, the concept behind this museum is that there’s always going to be new and fresh artworks from uh a variety of artists in Japan. Um rather than having kind of these legacy works. Yeah. So, I’m excited to check this museum out. Um I didn’t really I didn’t even know that it just opened. Um it just kind of popped up uh when I was booking tickets online. So yeah, let’s uh go ahead and check it out. Apart from the familiar and bold architecture from Tadaw Ando, the new museum’s artworks were all very visually compelling and felt refreshingly new for me. The exhibited works today were all from emerging and legacy Asian artists from Japan, Korea, Thailand, China, and Indonesia to name a few. My favorite work personally was from Korean artist Tohosa and his work is titled Hubs where he took the architectural proportions of a traditional Japanese house corridor and reconstructed it with this translucent fabric which really gave a new and fresh perspective on architectural spaces. the world. [Music] So, right now we stopped by this cafe called Konichawa Cafe uh during my bike ride and I kind of stumbled upon this without any you know Google search or um yeah it was just on my bike route. you know, they serve small dishes like curry, uh, coffee, uh, just juice and things like that. So, [Music] for the last stop of the day, I’d head over to Kasama’s obligatory yellow pumpkin. [Music] So, now we just made it to Yayo Kusama’s second pumpkin here in Naoshima. This is a piece of art uh that I’ve always wanted to come and see in person. I feel like this one is kind of one of the most renowned um spots to see her work. This island is already so beautiful. Um, so this kind of scenery gives it another feeling or mood to her work. Um, yeah. So there were no people surprisingly except the Japanese family who kindly asked me to take a picture for them. Honestly, it felt surreal to be in that moment facing the beautiful blue stoi and the complimentary yellow hue of Kusama’s pumpkin. And looking back on the day here in Noshima, it made me realize that creativity and art uh really brings people together from around the world. I think it was amazing to see all of this collaborative artwork displayed here on in the museums through the architecture sculptures and through the paintings. And all of these museums were so easy to access u with just a bike and my faith 16 backpack. So, if you’re like me and just appreciate art and the beauty of nature, then I don’t think there’s a better place than Naoshima. I hope you enjoyed this day in the life format video of me here in Naoshima. If you enjoy this type of content, please make sure to hit the like button and subscribe to our channel. If you have any comments or questions, please leave them down below. This is Josh from Brandwalk signing out. Thanks for watching and see you in the next one. [Music]

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Video Time Stamps:
00:00 Introduction – What Is Naoshima Island?
01:07 How To Get To Naoshima From Tokyo
01:59 Arrival In Naoshima
02:36 The Red Pumpkin
03:30 Hifumiyo Coffee
04:11 Benesse House Museum
06:16 Naoshima New Museum of Art
08:48 The Yellow Pumpkin
09:50 Conclusion

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