Night at the Museum

How the island of Naoshima, in Japan, launched a global "art hotel" movement.

- Ryan Craggs

FROM AN UNASSUMING port in Uno, about 50 minutes by train from Okayama, a $2 ferry delivers travelers to the island of Naoshima. A giant yellow-and-black spotted pumpkin-a sculpture by Yayoi Kusama-waits on a pier as passengers disembark, entering a world of art centered around the Benesse House Museum (doubles from $343).

There, on a quiet hillside overlooking the Seto Inland Sea, guests don't just sleep in rooms adorned with art-they inhabit a museum. As night falls and day-trippers depart, hotel guests gain exclusive afterhours access to galleries and grounds filled with pieces by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Walter De Maria.