Shifting Tides

Ponant’s new Seto Inland Sea journey brings travelers to a version of Japan that had previously been nearly impossible to access

- KATE CROCKETT

THE MORNING SUN was already high and hot, penetrating a blue sea haze that softened the forested islands on the horizon. The silhouette of a cargo ship inched north along the diffuse line between sky and sea, toward the frenetic cities on the mainland of Honshu. But where I was, all was peaceful.

In the milky blue below my Prestige stateroom balcony, two large Chrysaora jellyfish pulsed nonchalantly along the hull of Ponant's 466-foot Le Soléal. Just the night before, this luxury expedition ship had transported me from the bustle of Osaka's crowds and heavy industry to the mysterious and beautiful Seto Inland Sea, the body of water that separates Japan's main islands: Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu.

The Seto Inland Sea was Japan's most important trade route for centuries, before road and rail. Its port towns prospered, hosting seafarers as they waited for tides to propel them east toward the imperial capitals or west toward the Sea of Japan, which was the way I was headed on this eight-day cruise from Osaka to Fukuoka. Traveling by sea remains the best-though least utilized-way to explore this sleepy region, which most travelers bypass at 185 miles an hour aboard the Tokaido-Sanyo shinkansen.

Le Soléal, which turned 10 last year, is a sleek, small ship with cutting-edge tech to reduce its impact on the environment. On my first morning, I descended to the marina deck to board one of her 12 Zodiacs (Ponant is the first international company permitted to operate Zodiacs in these waters), bound for Inujima ("dog island"), our first port of call. Inujima is the smallest of the four islands that comprise Benesse Art Site Naoshima, a revolutionary art project that started on Naoshima in 1992 and expanded onto its neighbors. Its innovative proposition to use art to drive rural regeneration has put the Seto Inland Sea firmly on the global art map.