May 24th in words

We really like this system of being able to forward your luggage ahead to the next hotel for just $10 so we opted to do it again, and again we decided to do two hotels ahead. Breakfast was a little more chaotic, partly because we had a ferry to catch at 8:12 and partly because this time it was a buffet in the hotel lobby and it was crowded. Breakfast done, we went and asked who we thought was a doorman to call a taxi and it turns out it was a free shuttle service! Perfect!
A little confusion at the ferry terminals but someone pointed us in the right direction. We even had plenty of time for a cup of coffee. The ferry was very empty and a nice trip across to the island. It took 50 minutes to get to Naoshima. The island is famous for its modern art museums and sculptures found around the island. My intent was to take the tourist bus but Heidi spotted bikes for rent. We rented our bikes from an older couple. Lots of hand waving and pointing but finally we got across the message that we would return the bikes by 3pm and the cost ended up being a grand total of $3 each. You get what you pay for! These were not the same quality of bikes that we rented from the Giant store. No gears, no choice in size and drum brakes that screeched. We couldn't help but laugh as we rode around the island. The first thing we realized was that we had the scale (map vs reality) all wrong. We thought we were taking the long route around to the first Point of interest but in no time we ended up back where we started. We had missed all our turns. So we backed tracked and sure enough it was just around the corner. Our first stop was the Ando Museum. No photos allowed inside the museum :-( The architecture was amazing and inside were models and descriptions of other installations. Next stop was a shrine but there was an actual "service" being held and we felt like we were intruding so we moved on. We really enjoyed biking along the coast and the ocean views. The weather was ideal. We soon found the famous Pumpkin and the Benesse House. We explored the outdoor installations and then headed for the museum. Again no photos in the museum. I think my favorite piece was the three chattering men! We had a delicious lunch (Pumpkin soup of course), refreshed we headed back out to continue our tour. One of the outdoor exhibits was right by an incredible beach. We just couldn't believe that there was no one on  the beach. We took our shoes off and put our feet in the water. It was so perfect. It really was tempting to go for a swim! We just stood there for the longest time enjoying the view and cooling down. Eventually we had to leave and we continued our tour of the museums. We made it back to the bike rental place at 3, had some time to kill before the next ferry so we found...you guessed it...ice cream. It was a 20 minute ferry ride to Uno and then a 3 hour ride to Kyoto. It took us a bit to get our orientation, Kyoto is much larger than we realized but once we were pointed in the right direction it was a short walk to our hotel.