Ceramics for dinner

Hi everyone,  Japanese live ceramics, love ceramics and use ceramics daily in their lives.  Here are some photos from a formal  dinner showing the amazing variety of ceramic ware used.  They mix styles and colors. The Japanese deeply appreciate ceramics from their hearts and souls.

My sensei here is Tasaki-sensei.  He is able to have a studio and shop  in Nagasaki by renting out two front spaces of his shop to a small coffee shop and a cookie vendor.  Yes he only sells cookies, almond and rosemary, 3 for $2.00.  The front vendors use the one bathroom in the studio.  Tasaki-sensei gives lessons to local people and sells his ware.  I wonder if this could work in the US?

Anyway, on to the photos.

I begin with a hello and the international peace sign.  I am standing in a lovely river that runs through Nagasaki.  I have my new parasol as most women here have sun hats or parasols or both.  The sun can get very hot and the days humid, or as they say in Japanese, "jimay-jimay" which means sticky, hot and uncomfortable.

The next photos are from a tempura dinner that a friend took us to at a restaruant.  Check out all the ceramic ware and food!

Tempura

Two sauce pots

Sorry if some of the photos are a little out of focus.  I am becoming a very good beer drinker!

Rice bowl

Three inch dish with pickled vegies

Four inch dish with dessert

Two inch sauce bowl

Small serving bowl

Tea cup

Two more varieties of serving dishes.  The food at the far right is a sea snail that is cooked in the shell with sauce and served.  Very good.  Japanese version of escargot.

The miso soup was cooked with clams in their shells.  Here are the empty shells.

Sayonara from this heron in the river, and for Merrillee,

hello from the koi that also live in the river and that you paint on your beautiful bowls.