Glass-blowing in Awa Kamogawa

One really wonderful surprise about living in our neighborhood in Tokyo is that we have an abundance of amazing international neighbors.  Our neighbors across the street (whose last name I just realized that I don't know), Hamish and Yoko, have two sons, Max (age 12) and Hugo (age 7), who are like brothers to Andreas.  The boys are constantly playing Nerf guns in the street or soccer in the park.  Our neighbors next door, Cassie and David Guttenfelder, have two girls, Julia (age 8) and Mae (age 6) who are like sisters to Annika.  They hole themselves up in Annika's room to play with American Girl dolls, disturb the whole neighborhood with their squeaky pogo-sticking or are enmeshed in crafts on Cassie's dining room table.  Needless to say, we feel extraordinarily blessed with such great neighbors. 

In any case, Hamish and Yoko generously invited us all to visit their country home in Awa Kamogawa in Chiba Prefecture.  Peter, Annika, Andreas and I took the "wakashio" train from Tokyo Station at 9:00am on Saturday and arrived a smooth and easy two hours later at Awa Kamogawa where Hamish picked us up.  Saturday we spent drinking red wine, eating steak and the most delicious fried potatoes ever around the fireplace.  In the evening, we had an incredibly communing-with-nature outdoor hot bath on their roof while it snowed (love that!). 

The next day, we visited a famous glass artisan named Yoji Suzuki at his studio.  He seems to live a simple life on a little piece of land where his glass studio is.  For 3,500 yen, he will teach you to make your own glass item.  You get to pick the shape and design and then you get to work.  I don't think this kind of thing could happen in the U.S. because the liability insurance would be enormous.  There is 500 degree Celsius glass on the end of poles being moved around the room as the kids learn how to blow glass.  Peter and I joined in the fun too.  It was a great experience.

Easy to miss the sign in the road

The glass studio is next door to Suzuki-san's house

 

Hamish, Deanna, Suzuki-san, Yoko and Peter

The view across the street from the studio is one of rice fields and hills.  Kamogawa rice is so superior that it is the rice of the Emperor, apparently.

Our creations: Andreas', Peter's and Annika's glasses



Deanna's bowl was a bit lopsided...