Monday. From Kanazawa, our next stop was Uno Port for a return to Naoshima Art Island and the Seto Sea. I loved it so much eight years ago, I wanted to return on this trip. So we planned for a long day of travel to get there.
It was going to take about 7 hours with four tight train connections. What we didn’t plan for is that my cold symptoms were rapidly worsening. Still, we dragged our heavy bags from station to station. We missed one connection and barely made two others but we finally arrived in Uno Port 8 hours later and taxied the last leg to our hotel.
Turns out Keirin 10 is a biker hotel! As in bicyclists racing in the velodrome right next door. Kinda cool, biker-themed vibe throughout the hotel..
More importantly, our hotel had a great view of the Seto Sea from our room. Because that’s where I spent the next couple days. Let’s just say the next few days weren’t pretty.
Turns out I had contracted the flu which despite our vaxes before the trip didnt protect me from the variant charging through Japan’s provinces. I experienced every awful flu symptom you remember.
Andy went out the first two nights for solo dinners and would bring back provisions for me. I barely ate but at least had toast and a hard boiled egg daily at the restaurant cafe.
We were supposed to be visiting Neshima Island by ferry the next day but that didn’t happen. However, I had bought advance tickets to return to the amazing Chichu museum on Naoshima for the second day and was still holding out hopes of sufficient recovery to make the trek.
But Wednesday I still wasn’t well so I urged Andy to go and enjoy it for the both of us. And gratefully, he did. While there, he sent me a text with a photo of the spot on Naoshima Island where we had talked to an old gardener. And suddenly that memory came back in brilliant color. I was transported there again!
That night, Andy reminded me of all the gorgeous art moments we saw on our first Naoshima visit while we packed up for the next leg. So, I didn’t get to visit the Art Island that had captured my heart 8 years ago. I can always go back to my old blog post and to sharing memories with my travel partner for life!
The next morning, I’m still feeling shaky but ya gotta keep on trucking. It took two more trains and 2 1/2 hours to reach our next locale that was Andy’s top trip pick. More adventures ahead in Onomichi!
Relive our first trip in 2018 and see why I wanted to come back:
