I recently spent a night here and thought I'd put in some comments while they were still fresh in my mind. This is a place that absolutely begs for photos but I am not a photographer so these few words will have to do (at least from me).

The overall experience had some portions which were absolutely amazing and others which were absolutely terrible. I am very pleased that I went, pleased that I stayed overnight, but (despite being a modern/contemporary art buff) don't feel the need to go back again.

The most amazing thing about how the island is set up is how wonderful the views are from practically anywhere. A moderate percentage of the art works are really worth seeing. Sculpture is especially well presented.

There are no fewer than five Monet Lily Pad paintings which I believe is about 1/7th of the total for the world although it did appear to me like the best and largest one was in need of conservation. But then I'm no expert and the effect could have been what Monet intended.

I'm also going to say that the difficulty of getting to the island is one of the attractions; it makes the whole experience special.

Tadao Ando's architecture is sometimes amazing, but I found the part that featured long, dark, unadorned concrete hallways to be prison-like.

Some of the service I got was exceptional, going beyond what I expected.

In the neutral category, I found a smaller percentage of the works to be exceptional than I expected looking at the accession list which Pickles found a link to somewhere here on FT. It is possible that only a smallish percentage of the total holdings are on display (this is the case at MoMA, for example). If so, it's unfortunate that the ones they chose currently might not be their best.

Also, only a very small portion of the island is devoted to art. The biggest employer on the island is an industrial plant run by Mitsubishi Materials. It is not at all visible or intrusive from the art areas, but you do see it from the ferry. This was more a surprise than a bother,

In the terrible category, I'd have to start with the hotel room I had. This room cost Y40,000 a night, for which you can often get a luxury hotel room in Tokyo these days. It was max 25m2 in size with a tiny bathroom and was furnished in the style that I would call "90s Motel 6 chic." There is no internet or TV in the rooms, presumably to allow you to contemplate the art, although you can rent a TV for Y1,000 a night. Internet access is limited to a few public alcoves (the one nearest me was outside in the cold) and one small wifi area in one of the buildings which was about 1/4 mile from my room.

Also bad was most of the service that did not fall into the exceptionally good category. Staff often seemed to leave the feeling that they were superior and knew better than their guests; i.e., "New York attitude." First time I have ever experienced this in Japan.

Finally, once you have booked an expensive room and some expensive meals, it is terrible that you still have to pay Y4,000 a person additional if you want to visit all the museums associated with Benesse. This place is definitely run as a profit center.

Children are not allowed in the rooms in the Museum and above the museum in the Oval area. These are the rooms you definitely want to stay in, especially Oval. The on-call monorail which Oval guests use to get to and from their room is absolutely in the amazing category,

There are two larger rooms among the six rooms in Oval. They are much larger than the regular rooms, at least three times as large.

Finally, if you have time at the Ferry terminal before departing, about a three minute walk away is a small free James Bond 'museum' built by a devoted local resident and fan. It's incredibly schlocky. Just follow the signs labeled "007," you can't miss it.