Holidays - Part I (West)

Naoshima: possibly the best place, ever. It's a small island between Honshu and Shikoku, the Southern half of which was pretty much bought by a publishing firm and turned into an art project. Along with two Tadao Ando-designed galleries, one of which is also a hotel, there are a series of art/architecture works in houses in the main town. We stayed for two nights in Benesse House, the art gallery/hotel. It was absolutely amazing! Our rooms were up at the top of the complex, and were reached by a private monorail - it all had this very strange feeling of Bond-villain's-lair to it... I think probably the best thing is to provide the website of Benesse House and a link to my photos. The art was incredible, the view was fantastic, you get the idea! I just don't think it's really possible to do it justice without seeing it in the concrete flesh.

Next stop, Kyoto. The best part of this was going up Hieizan to Enryakuji, a sprawling temple complex. It was really snowy and this just made this huge mountaintop enclave feel all the more like something from a film. It also made it extremely cold (no surprise there!). Photos here.