12 Day Luxury Honeymoon in Japan- Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Naoshima/Teshima Art Islands

Day 10 - Time to head to Naoshima/Teshima. We took the Shinkansen to Okayama, then another train to Uno and then a ferry to one of the Teshima Ports. This took about 3-4 hours. Once we got to Teshima we rented motor assisted bicycles, they let us store our bags with them and we rode to the Teshima museum. I don’t know what we would have done if we didn’t have motor assist because it was pretty hilly. It took about 15-20 minutes. The Teshima museum was really something special and I am glad we ventured here before Naoshima to go see it. After that we stopped at some place with a view of the water to grab a bite to eat and then back to the ferry terminal to Naoshima. We took a passenger speed boat ferry and it only took about 20 minutes. Once we got to the Naoshima since we were right by the Art Houses we checked out a couple of them and then caught the free shuttle to the Benesse House. We checked in and they guided us to our room in the Oval. This was the peak of the hotel and you had to take a funicular to get to the Oval, there are only 6 rooms in this area and it was pretty epic. The room is kinda basic, but you can’t beat the grounds and after hours access to the hotel. We freshened up, wandered the museum, and then got the shuttle to the Chichu museum as we had reservations for the night program at the Turrell exhibit which was really great to see the light interplay with the sunset into twilight. Then we grabbed the shuttle back to the Benesse house where we had a dinner reservation in the Japanese restaurant inside the museum. It was ok but a bit overpriced, but I mean we did have dinner inside a Ando designed restaurants inside a museum, so it is what it is. After dinner wandered the Museum a bit more, and then headed up to the Bar/Lounge in the Oval for a night cap. It was great sitting up there with the view of Island and enjoyed some whiskey before bed.

Day 11 - Had a weak, free continental breakfast in the oval lounge, the view was nice, but the selection was kind of stale and boring. Then we headed down to see the rest of the benesse house sites, the beach, and the park areas. There’s some outdoor installations including a Kusama pumpkin on a pier. Then we grabbed the shuttle to the Chichu Museum so we could see the rest of that as the night program was after hours, it had some awesome exhibits but it is relatively small. Then we took the shuttle and finished the rest of the Art houses which we were happy we made time for. We definitely packed in a lot on the Islands. Picked up the free shuttle back to the Benesse house, checked out and then went to the Port.