Escaping from reality - One day trip to Naoshima

Two weeks ago, I visited Naoshima island with four of my friends. We all got hired  in the same year but since we five got assigned to each different station in our area we've been having different irregular work shifts, so except when we have business training at the branch office or at headquarters on the same day, we usually have little chance to get together.

So this time it was some kind of miracle that we all got the same day off  without asking for the paid holidays. We were like, why not? Let's go somewhere together and escape from real life!

Naoshima is a small island of Kagawa district, and is located in the Seto inland sea. We first took shinkansen to Okayama, and after making a quick inspection of the huge station, we took the Marine Liner, which links Okayama and the Shikoku island. At Chayamachi station we switched to the Uno line, then after 20 mins train ride we arrived at Uno station.

JR Uno station

Here we had almost 1 hour til the next boat for Naoshima, so we had lunch at a Udon restaurant and it was very good! 

The boat we took from Uno port to Naoshima

According to the forecast the weather was going to be cloudy, but actually it was sunny and hot. The wind was so cool and we enjoyed the 20 mins boat trip so much!

Arrived!

(Doesn't it look just like the place from the Hayao Miyazaki movie "Ponyo on the cliff by the sea"?!)

As soon as we arrived in Naoshima an old friendly guy came to us and told us where we should visit in the island. It helped us a lot because we didn't have any particular plan for after getting to the island. We decided to take a free bus running around the island to save time.

Exploring around the island was a lot of fun. Houses were old and streets were sound and narrow, which made us feel like we were back in Showa era. 

Also, there were some unique artworks around the streets, and they didn't bore us at all even while we were waiting for our next bus.

Isn't it cute?

A cat was sleeping cozily in the sun.

Then we headed to the beach,

...and there we shared everything about work, friends, our boss, love, life,

(My first ice cream of this year＼(^0^)／ Yes, it was such a hot day!)

and about our future,

...until we found that we had totally forgotten the time.

Unlike our 'real' life in which we're always supposed to be very punctual, it seemed like time went by so slowly in this island.We had a very relaxing and precious time there.

Another artwork made of things that people left at the beach

After spending hours at the beach, we went to  Benesse house museum and enjoyed seeing many contemporary artworks. The museum was completely different from the ones that I ever visited. Not only each artwork, but also the building itself and the way they display were very unique and interesting.I'm sure you'll enjoy them too even if you were not so interested in art. 

The view from the art museum

The sun started to go down, so we walked down from the mountain to the port. We took a ferry on our way back to Uno port.

It was such a short time but we had a really good time.I realized how important it is to have colleagues. Whatever workplace/department we'll be assigned to in the future, I hope our relationship will last forever. 

Bye-bye Naoshima, we'll be back again!