Mashiko last week

Hello all. Here's a blog post that I wrote last Wednesday when I visited Mashiko.

Well what an incredible day I just had. I’m lying in bed, wide awake as my time clock is still completely confused and my mind is mulling over the events of today. There is no internet access in this little travel lodge in the woods on the outskirts of Mashiko, so I’m writing this now, to put on line at the next opportunity.

It’s a great place, nothing like the travel lodges back home, with their cheap and tacky interiors.

I don’t dare press any of those buttons.

So here’s the story of my day. It began with a soak in the deep bath of my hotel, before I packed up may bags ready to say farewell to Tokyo. Koi picked me up at 9.30 and we headed off by car to Mashiko. It was interesting to see the terrain change as we headed further north away from the city. Koi told me that only 30% of Japan is habitable, because the rest is too mountainous. The houses in Tokyo are very close together, but as we entered more rural territory, the buildings were more spread out amongst flat farm land, flanked by sudden rugged mountains. It was a beautiful sight.

A couple of hours later, we arrived in Mashiko at a restaurant, where we met with Tomoo Hamada. How surreal, to be sitting down cross legged on the floor, eating lunch with this famous man. We ate a huge meal of pork cutlets and salad and rice and I did my best with the chopsticks, then made our way to the Hamada workshop.

I didn’t want to start taking photographs indoors, it would have felt disrespectful.

Tomoo showed us the almighty climbing kiln with its five chambers. The last two chambers had needed to be rebuilt following the earthquake.

And he showed us the salt glaze kiln. It was fascinating and quite overwhelming.

We left Tomoo and made our way in to the centre of Mashiko. Koi had an appointment to attend, so I wandered around the numerous pottery shops, looking at the local wares.

I saw more climbing kilns and a whole variety of different styles of pottery. It has really struck me how many people here use hand-made pottery every day.

I also wandered in to this wonderful old building where fabric was being dyed deep indigo blue, the floor containing numerous vats of steaming dye.

This had been the trade in Mashiko before it became established as a pottery town.

Koi and I met up again at 4 pm and went to The Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, where we saw a fantastic exhibition of works by Bernard Leach and his associates, before meeting the Vice Director of the Museum in his office. He wanted to interview me with a view to possibly including my work in an exhibition in September, demonstrating the influence of Leach on contemporary British makers. I was delighted to have been accepted, so that’s very exciting.

Then I stood smiling in disbelief outside Shoji Hamada’s house.

This evening we met with Mr Yokobori from the museum again and had a delicious meal.

On tonight’s menu, these wonderful salads.

Oysters, another first for me and really good.

 Burdock root wrapped in bacon.

What a brilliant day, Koi has really looked after me so well, it has been a mind blowing, inspirational experience.

Tomorrow we are meeting Tomoo again to visit the Mashiko Hamada archive and then to see Ken Matsusaki, before I jump on a train to my next destination, Tokoname.

Home

Hello there
Well I'm home, lying in my bed in Devon. I got back on Monday evening after a grueling 32 hour journey which knocked me out all day yesterday with a migraine. I need to get back to work today. I will have plenty to think about in my little workshop, deep in the English countryside, half a world away from my adventures in Japan.

It's early in the morning now and the song thrush is singing outside my window, the beautiful song it sings every morning here - there is no sweeter music. I loved every minute of being away, incredible adventures, amazing sights and wonderful people. I love home too. I wandered out to the workshop last night when I finally arose from my sickbed and it was a joy to smell the cool, damp air of the Devon countryside. It's so easy to allow the beauty of everyday life to go unnoticed and going away exposes my senses, not just to the wider world, but also to my own environment when I return. I love it here so much.

I was off line for a while last week and then so busy living life that I didn't have a chance to blog about it, but I have many pictures that I took and I'll share some of them with you in the next few days. It has been a mind blowing experience and  I have memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
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Thank you so much to all the people who looked after me so well while I was away, I made some really good friends. It was brilliant spending time with you all.

Last day in Tokyo

What a great day, I've been all over the place, up and down escalators, on and off of trains, in and out of stations and I haven't got lost once....well, not exactly.

This is the Japan Folk Crafts Museum, situated in a pretty suburb, with roads lined with dogwood trees in full bloom. It was my first port of call this morning and was fascinating. What a superb building. 

Unfortunately photography wasn't allowed so I can't show you any of the beautiful contents, but you can see some of the amazing collection on their web site.

After that I headed back to Shibusa for lunch. This was my place of choice today, encouraged in by that lady on the doorstep.

And this is what I ate, meat, fish and vegetables with noodles. It was very good, mighty filling and I burned my tongue.

Next I headed off to the International School, where I met up with Steve Tootell. I did a demo for his class and then gave a throwing lesson. It was really enjoyable and very satisfying, they were a lovely bunch of kids.

Steve had arranged with another teacher for us to have a jam in the school music studio, so we recorded a somewhat shabbily played demo, which was great fun and a nice thing to have as a momento. Here's Steve mixing the track down.

Then Steve and I headed out for dinner in one of his favourite eateries. It was great to sit and chat about life and pottery and mutual friends. Here are some more food pictures

This was a kind of whitebait on a bed of puree radish, served cold.

Followed by these little nuts that were a bit like sweet chestnuts. This was freshly cooked in front of us on hot charcoal.

Next was this chicken, with a herb that is unique to Japan, I don't remember its name.

Then chicken with plum sauce and more of said herb.

Next up, mushrooms stuffed with pork

Then green pepper with melted cheese, wrapped in bacon

all washed down with copious amounts of lager and a sour lemon and sake drink.

We said our farewells and went our separate ways. It was very pleasant indeed, I've been so well looked after here.

Full of good food and drink, I climbed aboard my train and proceeded to doze off. When I awoke I was much further along the line than I was supposed to be, so I then had to travel half way back again. It was good to get back to the hotel for the last time and kick my boots off from my tired feet.

Tomorrow Koi, the gallery owner is going to collect me in the morning and we'll head off by road to Mashiko and the next leg of my adventure. He's been so kind to me and organised my schedule on this trip when I really hadn't a clue. Mashiko is a town of many potters, it will be fascinating. I'm not sure if I'll have internet access when I get there, but if I do, I'll let you know what's going on. If not, I'll be back soon with words and pictures. Thank you very much for all of your comments and words of encouragement on my recent posts, they are much appreciated. Time for bed for me now, goodnight all.

Back

 Evening all. Here I am, wide awake again in the middle of the night. I'm really not coping well with this jet lag and the change of my time clock. I feel exhausted during the late afternoon, need to doze in the early evening, then I'm wide awake until the early hours, making the mornings a real struggle. I've had a couple of migraines since getting here. No doubt I'll get in to the whole groove of this place, just in time to go home.

I surprised myself today, by making it to town and back without getting lost. It's all very confusing, but the people here clearly sense that I'm completely out of my depth and have been very happy to help me. Standing looking puzzled, trying to read my guide book this morning, a kindly woman stopped and showed me how the ticket machines work at the station and pointed me in the right direction. More about today in a bit, but first of all, here are some more pictures from yesterday.

The chap on the left is the director of the Tamba Pottery Museum. He bought one of my lidded jars. It's been interesting, because lots of people have asked me what my jars are used for. I hadn't really thought of that before, they're just jars that you can put stuff in.

The lady in the middle of this picture is Atsuko Matano. I was thrilled to meet her. She is an incredible designer and artist, with whom I've connected in the virtual world, so to meet her in person has been a real highlight of this trip. How the internet has changed the world is incredible.

This is Mr Hirayama's beautiful family. His children are so sweet. I think they thought my westerner's big nose was rather amusing. They were a real delight bless them, the littlest one kept holding my hand. I'm sure I will see them all again some day.

Yesterday evening I was taken out to dinner by these lovely folk. The lady runs the pottery workshop next door to the gallery and the chap is one of her students.

We went to a restaurant that specialized in cooking eel. It was absolutely delicious. The fish are boiled in a stock made from soy sauce and sake, to which chopped onions and spices were added

More eels - really tasty. I had raw eel earlier in the day too. It's not a fish I would think of eating back at home, but I will do now.

Afterwards they took me to this beautiful temple and a speedy sightseeing car journey round the centre of Tokyo. It was amazing, they were such sweet people, I hope our paths cross again. It was a short and intense meeting and I felt quite emotional saying goodbye.

A lot of the food here is a mystery to me, I'm not quite sure what I'm eating sometimes, but all of it has been really good. The many noodle bars have these display cabinets outside, with plastic(?) versions of the dishes on offer.

This was food for sale in a huge food hall that I visited today in a department store, lots of fish and prawns and salad stuff.

Everything is packaged so beautifully

Melons with bows

And fish tanks with these poor blighters awaiting their fate.

I ate in this noodle bar today, sorry about the blurred picture

This is what I had, I think it was pork and miso. It was delicious, onions, chilli, garlic, beansprouts, tasty tasty.

The only way to eat noodles is to slurp them, so I had to lose my English inhibitions and suck it up. I'm not very good with chopsticks, but I'll keep practicing.

Check out all the people waiting to cross the road on the far side. It was busy busy busy in town. This place couldn't be more different from my life in my little shed in Devon. It was weird being all on my own so far from home.

The rail system here seems very efficient.

I was the only Westerner in my carriage. A lot of folks here wear masks like the guy sitting here on the left of this picture. This is apparently because of the high pollen count, certainly I can hear a lot of sneezing throughout the night through the thin walls of this hotel.

 It was with a big smile that I stepped off the train and headed back, with the realization that I'd managed to do it all on my own without getting lost. You're probably bored of me going on about it, but it's a big deal for me because I lack a lot of confidence when it comes to doing this stuff in the big wide world. My life is one of single track lanes with grass growing down the middle, which is very safe and comfortable. I rarely travel more than ten miles from my workshop. I stopped in the supermarket on the way back and stocked up with teabags and milk and sugar and have spent a quiet evening in, drinking good old English style tea - nice.

A lot more train travelling to do tomorrow. I'm going to head out early and visit the Japanese Folk Art Museum, which will be fascinating no doubt. After that I'm going to another part of the city to meet up with Steve Tootell, who is a potter and teacher from England. He teaches at the International School here and I'm going to do a demo for his pupils in the afternoon, after which we'll head out for food and sake, before I try and find my way back here for my final night's sleep in Tokyo. If I don't get lost, I'll be back to tell you all about it. Time to try and get some sleep now if I can, goodnight all.