Demons everywhere!

Together with our friend Bülent, we are taking a day trip to Shodoshima, an island north of Takamatsu. We catch a ferry just in time, with 1 minute before departure, we buy the tickets and easily board the ferry with the perfectly organized instructions from the staff. In Shodoshima, we stroll to Angel Road first. This is a sandbank that connects the main island with a smaller one throughout the day. We observe this spectacle and wade through the shallow water. We are the only ones going for a swim. The Japanese women, of course, are covered from head to toe and do not let a single ray of sun touch their skin. The waves are dancing with each other and within each other. It looks a bit like fluttering wings. Three quarters of an hour later, the sandbank is completely visible.

We hear about an art museum about Japanese demons called Yokai. We make our way there to take a closer look. The artist dedicates his art to the Yokai. It is about making the invisible visible and giving a face to mysteries. The Yokai have existed for centuries and belief in demons is reinforced by the legends. The Yokai come in all sorts of forms. There is a Kotatsu Yokai that devours you if you fall asleep under a heated table. Or Yokai that simply make certain, strangely eerie sounds, like the sounds of someone washing red beans in a river. The artist says that the presence of the demons is strongly perceptible on the island. We suspect that there are also Yokai hiding here and there in the city... or was it just the wind?

On the island, there are the Terraced Rice Fields. It is now a community project of the local residents who take care of the abandoned rice fields. A whole mountain full of rice!