![\"Art](\"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Naoshima6-488x650.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAn island barn as it was, the house itself held spaces out of place. To enter, we had to pay two attendants \u2013 this building was a stop on a trail of artistic creations (Naoshima\u2019s \u201cArt House Project\u201d) in the homey format.\u00a0Entering, we had to take off our footwear; it was a Japanese house interior not to be wrecked by shoe scuffing.\u00a0I remember a stark black and white to the interior, although some elements were cheeky pop art.\u00a0 Although the interior is sparsely adorned, there is one guest of a notable stature.<\/p>\n
We popped out of the building and coasted in the opposite direction into Honmura port\u2019s village.\u00a0Although our aesthetic palette had been dabble-dabbed, we needed to indulge in digestible art.\u00a0We understood little of any uniquely Naoshima food.\u00a0Along the road where pedestrians dawdled with doodled minds, we saw an Udon restaurant.\u00a0 Slurping piping hot udon wasn\u2019t the rest we needed. A little ways off was a sign promising soft-serve ice cream with its universal whip-coiffure. That wouldn\u2019t warm our bellies from the Naoshima island fall.<\/p>\n
Before the road was pinched between a hill and the sea, we left the road for a small alley.\u00a0 Walking our bikes, the most notable smell was of fresh wooden construction.<\/p>\n
When we emerged to a view looking across to neighboring Mukajima island and a group of water-wearied fisherman, we couldn\u2019t have expected the unassuming appearance of a cafe in its patch out back behind the main road.<\/p>\n
(Credit:\u00a0Cafe Konichiwa<\/a>)<\/p>\n The cafe, Cafe Konichiwa, was a cozy spot, with an unpretentious front that seemed like a lake house in my home state of New Hampshire.\u00a0It had a small yard and low plank wood platform with a slim sort of lean-to resting in characteristic Naoshima art. It seemed designed out of the Japanese sensibility to bend nature into works of art, dragged ashore onto Naoshima island.<\/p>\n We entered the cafe to a warm soundlessness, and uncertainly placed our shoes into the genkan<\/em> (Japanese household area where shoes are placed). When a face peeped from behind a shelf shielding the kitchen from across a comfy corridor, all was needed was a smile to cross the silence. We were then ushered into a small lounge.<\/p>\n (Credit: Cafe Konichiwa<\/a>)<\/p>\n The cafe lounge contained low seats and tables. There were magazines on shelves for flitting through an idle day, but our bellies had been idle long enough.\u00a0We began leafing through the sticker-tape notebook-menu tenderly crafted by the barista\/chef\/homeowner for our seriously needed sustenance.\u00a0 Despite the hunger hustle, the room and cafe whole had this blanket of quiet.\u00a0It was only peeped through by muffled comments between human and table legs.<\/p>\n The meal offerings were priced low as this hearth to the outside sea could be.\u00a0But the assured warmth of the dishes and definite familial warmth of the cafe interior raised prices to match our rising spirits.\u00a0 We each chose a warm drink and meal, content to spend a few yen more at this homey cafe in the midst of an art walk.<\/p>\n I remember the partition of meat sauce and rice like a hungry sea lapping up an island.\u00a0 It was satisfying to dip spoonfuls of rice into the curry, then stopping to take a draft of my mug of cafe latte.\u00a0 I could hardly draw my eyes away from the cafe\u2019s food.\u00a0 While the portion wasn\u2019t small by Japanese standards (it was modest, as a Japanese cafe often is), my belly was big by Japanese standards.\u00a0 It was time for desert, and so I saved my drink to give that balance of drink and dish.<\/p>\n It was a timeless while before we stood to exit the cafe.\u00a0 Only towards the end of our deserts did other guests come to ingest, perhaps awakening us with the brisk of island outside. We paid a little over 1500 Yen each for the meal and were on our way to the next Naoshima curiosity to welcome us with whatever concrete or driftwood limb it might offer.<\/p>\n We returned to the main road by the alleyway which had led us to Cafe Konichiwa.\u00a0 Inside where the road hugged around the sudden water, there squeezed up a hill.\u00a0 The green and a pathway through the lower island brush whispered of concealed worlds.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t have to think twice about locking our bikes in the nearest bay away from the road and hobbling upwards.<\/p>\n At the top we found a clearing.\u00a0 Trees still crowded a view of the sea, and a bench faced strangely inland the island at higher trees. \u00a0Unconcerned with art, we continued into a forest tunnel to fathom any lookouts to sea.<\/p>\n Peeking into the next level of forest, we found a Naoshima art house of a different sort.\u00a0 To our side, partly shaded in canopy and partly by clouds, was a shrine on stilts \u2013 the recently redesigned Go\u2019o shrine.\u00a0Despite darkness overhead, the structure and it holy plot of land seemed light.\u00a0 Placed evenly in the rectangular space were thousands of smooth white stones that held light like a secret blue lagoon.<\/p>\n Go\u2019o shrine had a low fence, and we followed to a sandy patch from where the path snaked silently away. The shrine held an aura akin to its main island counterparts, but touched by the sea as the hill on which it stilted up from.\u00a0 We set into the grounds as the shrine seemed to float.<\/p>\n English words drifted over the salty island air after a moment.\u00a0 While I had entered some sort of reverie, an islander had found me. Ruddy-cheeked as a fisherman, the man had just as many stories to tell.\u00a0 I was surprised by his command of the English language, as certain as a weathered fisherman of his catch. \u00a0He explained with apparent cheer the history of the shrine.<\/p>\n Set as we were upon the shrine grounds, we had set our minds on exploring the most of Naoshima in a single day. With perhaps a grain of guilt and a downwards head-tilt, saying \u201cthank you\u201d we tread back through the forest and off the hill for the cozy art village.\u00a0 The Naoshima island cool was with us the entire way.<\/p>\n We wandered among small touring groups of visitors after unlocking our bikes and stepping into some back streets.\u00a0 The Honmura neighborhood was nestled against the nape of the hill and comprised of many of the curious Naoshima Art House Project houses.\u00a0 We happened upon Kadoya art house just ambling around.\u00a0 Our rental bicycles didn\u2019t belong amongst scuffing shoes, though.\u00a0 It was time to speed away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Naoshima Island (Miyanoura, Honmura) Access<\/strong><\/p>\n From Uno: 280 Yen one-way ferry. (Timetables:\u00a0http:\/\/unoslopehouse.com\/Naoshima-Island-ferry-timetable.php)<\/p>\n To Uno: From JR Okayama station, take the JR Seto-Ohashi line towards Kojima station. Change for JR Uno Line at Chayamachi station, and get off at Uno Station. 580 Yen one-way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cafe Konichiwa<\/strong><\/p>\n Address:\u00a0845-7 Naoshimachoichien Naoshima-Cho<\/span>, Kagawa-gun, Naoshima-cho 761-3110, <\/span>Kagawa Prefecture<\/p>\n Hours: 10:00-20:00 (Summer); 11:00-18:00 (Winter)<\/p>\n Pricing:\u00a0400-600 Yen for drinks, 680 for dishes, 250 for appetizers, 280-580 for sweets<\/p>\n Website:\u00a0http:\/\/konichiwa.jp\/<\/a> (in Japanese only)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Not](\"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Honmura3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Cafe](\"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Honmura2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Refitted](\"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Honmura4-488x650.jpg\")
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