Yesterday, I visited Inujima for the first time. I’ll tell you all about it soon (right now, I’m spending my few days of vacations as much as possible away from my computer, but that won’t last).
Today, I’m going back to Shamijima to see all the art completed and finished (it’ll be interesting as last month I only saw works in progress).
Thanks for answering my questions so far. It’s been very helpful.
I was wondering if you can leave your car somewhere near the ferry or do you take it with you?
I hate trying to figure these things out when I get somewhere…
Actually, under the appellation “ferry” there are two types of very different boats.
Some of them are actual ferry boats, i.e. they can carry vehicles. Some are passengers boats that can’t carry much more than people (even large suitcases or baby strollers can be an issue if the boat is very crowded).
But generally speaking, you don’t need your car on the islands except for Shodoshima and possibly Teshima (but no car carrying boat to Teshima from Takamatsu, you’ll have to make a detour through Uno or Shodoshima). On the other islands, bringing your car is more a hassle than anything else – not mentioning the extra cost)
I agree with the point about cars. On one of my visits to Shodoshima, we actually rented a car on the island (at a reasonable price), and it helped to get to some of the more inaccessible places in the mountains, but the art pieces can be visited by bus–you’ll just want to plan carefully because the buses don’t run that frequently. The bus system on Teshima seemed to work fine for us–again, it’s just helpful to keep an eye on the times. Naoshima is too small to require a car, (the buses work fine, and it’s quite possible to get around just walking). Ogijima and Inujima are so small that a car would be next to useless–there is practically nowhere to drive a car, not to mention nowhere to park.
And yes, many of the ferries are not car ferries anyway!