Moments from Benesse Art Site Naoshima / various exhibitions

Starting in 1992, the Japanese company Benesse Holdings began turning Naoshima, a small island in the Seto Inland Sea that had spent the twentieth century as a copper-smelting town, into one of the most concentrated art destinations anywhere, working repeatedly with architect Tadao Ando to build museums that are as much about the experience of moving through concrete and light as they are about the collections inside. The Chichu Art Museum, largely built underground so it wouldn't disturb the island's landscape, uses natural light alone to illuminate its handful of works, including a room built specifically around several of Monet's water lily paintings. On the harbor, Yayoi Kusama's giant yellow pumpkin sculpture has become the island's unofficial mascot, photographed more than almost anything else in the whole project.

Give the island at least two full days if you can, the various museums and outdoor works, the Benesse House Museum, the Art House Project scattered through an actual fishing village, are spread out enough that rushing defeats the point. Reaching Naoshima itself, a ferry ride from Uno or Takamatsu, is part of the deliberate slowness the whole project is built around: this is art you're meant to travel toward, not stumble past.