A closer look
When your remote fishing villages start emptying out due to urbanization, the logical solution is obviously to turn them into an avant-garde artistic playground. The Seto Inland Sea islands were facing severe depopulation until they were overhauled into massive canvases for modern art. Now, tourists ride meticulously timed artisan ferries between dots of land to see giant, spotted pumpkin sculptures sitting on piers and abandoned wooden houses gutted and filled with neon lights. It is a surreal juxtaposition of aging local fishermen going about their day alongside throngs of hipsters analyzing abstract architecture.
