Naoshima

Naoshima is a real chilled island that not even many local Japanese know about. It's like 1 hour out of Osaka by the bullet train and is officially part of Kagawa prefecture. Its a quirky little island with top notch Japanese and Foreign contemporary art there. Although small enough to cycle around in, some of the hills are calf killers, especially on the rental mamacharis (basket bikes that most people ride round in Japan). A lot of the cool stuff I didn't get to take a photo of. There was a flower garden bursting with colour that has all the flowers that have ever appeared in any of Monet's paintings. And if you get sick of art, there's a lounge that sells Soph and Vis... Locals are mad friendly and we got driven in a pick up truck by the lady who ran the ryokan (japanese style guest house) and visited a family's house and checked out their 1000 plus year old antiques collection late at night.

I reckon Naoshima's worth checking out if you are around that neck of the woods.