Aunt Shigeko and her daughter-in law and baby granddaughter took us on a tour of Mashiko, a pottery village, today. It was a pleasant little place, with narrow streets and small kitchen gardens everywhere. We visited one showroom after another, all with lovely tea bowls, tea sets, and sushi plates. A highlight for me was a climbing kiln, an enormous thing. It had maybe 8 ware chambers, each large enough to walk into and load pots on shelves. They climbed about two feet for each chamber, and so at the top there wasn't a chimney, just a set of ceramic cylinders that vented out into the air. You load enormous amounts of firewood, first into the topmost chamber, and then successively into the lower chambers until the whole thing is roaring. The brick walls of the chambers were melted.
Lunch was at a restaurant at the end of a long dirt road, a buffet followed by fish and rice, then dessert. Once again, I was amazed at watching these very slender, short people pack away enormous amounts of food and then bounce up, wondering how much dessert they could order with the set price.
After our tour, we went to a little workroom where we each threw three pots of our own on electric wheels. This was a jolly experience, with much laughter and miming. There was an American shorthair cat who presided over the operations and made sure she got sufficient attention.
Dinner was at home, with eight people around the kotatsu, two gas frying pans, and an enormous amount of meat, vegetables, and noodles that you could drop into the bubbling soy sauce and cook. We hung around afterwards, sharing photos and enjoying each others company.
Word of the day: kotatsu: some homes have a table with a second top. You sandwich a blanket between the two tops, which hangs down over your legs. The floor under the table is sunken and there's an electric heater down there. Handy in an unheated house with paper walls in November!
Lunch was at a restaurant at the end of a long dirt road, a buffet followed by fish and rice, then dessert. Once again, I was amazed at watching these very slender, short people pack away enormous amounts of food and then bounce up, wondering how much dessert they could order with the set price.
After our tour, we went to a little workroom where we each threw three pots of our own on electric wheels. This was a jolly experience, with much laughter and miming. There was an American shorthair cat who presided over the operations and made sure she got sufficient attention.
Dinner was at home, with eight people around the kotatsu, two gas frying pans, and an enormous amount of meat, vegetables, and noodles that you could drop into the bubbling soy sauce and cook. We hung around afterwards, sharing photos and enjoying each others company.
Word of the day: kotatsu: some homes have a table with a second top. You sandwich a blanket between the two tops, which hangs down over your legs. The floor under the table is sunken and there's an electric heater down there. Handy in an unheated house with paper walls in November!
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