Pottery studio visit, Imari

This is a 14th generation pottery studio. Their pots are made with clay dug on their own property.

Dinner at 150 year old inn

Unique experience grilling your own fish, meat and veggies.

Visiting a reed artist

Yoichi Nakamura, reed artist, showing us how to use a reed pen for drawing. He's one of the very few reed artists in Japan. He harvests reeds, dries them about a year and shaves them to make a pen for his artwork.

A rented micro bus

We traveled to remote areas using this chartered micro bus for 2 full days.

Porcelain mosaic bridge, Imari

Over 50 kiln chimneys can be seen in the small pottery village of Ookawachiyama - Imari. When Shoguns changed power, Nabeshima, a local war lord, kept his position and his life by siding with the new Tokugawa Shogun after being defeated by him. He moved the best potters from Arita to Imari and kept them prisoner in the gated community (steep mountains on 3 sides and only one gate). They produced and dedicated the best quality 17th Century porcelain to the Shogun.

Imari porcelain painting

Artists are painting porcelain at a studio in Imari.

A Lady selling dried fish

Morning Market (Asaichi) in Yobuko, a fishing town. With the growth of supermarkets in Japan these morning markets are disappearing.