26/05/2026
Japan hasn’t had enough spotlight on my feed. I joked that it was a ‘business trip’ yet I struggled to find a workshop experience that I felt was authentic and practical given time constraints. So I couldn’t believe my luck that we caught the last day of the Mashiko pottery fair. A 4 hour escape out of Tokyo felt like the adventure necessary to earn my shopping haul. A bucket list experience I never knew existed.
Yet it wasn’t the thousands of beautiful ceramics that lingers with me, but the weathered faces of experienced potters that would quietly nap behind their stalls, then wake with such humility and warmth to share their life’s work. They taught us the beauty of thick, heavy pieces, the precision of a perfect pour, and the quiet value that comes from decades devoted to pottery in Mashiko.
