→ Journal
→ About
Backstory: My facination with Japan didn’t stem from anime like it did for others. I don’t really know where it came from. When I was living in London, working a minimum wage job and struggling with mental health, I found myself in a YouTube hole looking for forms of escapism, which happened to land me at Jvloggers. Something about the culture and the mindset just gripped me, it felt like a society I longed for. The social order, cleanliness, respect for others and their space, all things that felt completely absent in a city like London. In the depths of my anxiety struggles, these snippets about life in Japan became a way to cancel the noise in my head, showing me a world of peace and serenity. After living in London for 2 years, my boyfriend and I got the opportunity to move to Switzerland, but my facination with Japan continued to grow. After moving abroad, learning a new language, starting a new career, experiencing the pandemic, and finding peace in pottery, I saved and booked a 9 week trip to Japan.
I landed in Tokyo, jetlagged, overwhelemed, but excited. My journey led me to different corners of the country, from the pulse of big cities to the calm of the countyside. But the main reason for my trip was to temporarily move to the countryside and learn ceramics. My destination Tajimi, a small town near Nagoya.
The train journey there was filled with anticipation for what was to come. What would the studio be like? What will my coursemates be like? Wtf am I actually doing here how did I pull this off? Arriving at the station, being met by our lovely teaching assistant, I felt a sense of calm come over me. My coursemates were one (in this case two) in a million. I would not have had the same experience without either of them, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to enjoy this time with. The next weeks we’re spent perfecting our practice. After completing some throwing exercises, I shifted my focus to learning how to create Kyusu teapots and teawear. For the first time in my life, I had the luxury of waking up in the morning and focusing my whole day on pottery. The feeling of our small community, sharing stories and dinners together, brought me so much peace.