The Good Life

With only the vaguest of directions, Martin and I headed off into the mountains in search of a pottery we saw advertised in the Jazz cafe at Yuki. Making our way through the twisting, one track roads we eventually found the pottery and its potter in her garden tending the bonsai and wearing a wide brimmed straw hat with lots of glossy black hair flowing from underneath. This was definitley the Japanese equivalent of Felicity Kendal in The Good Life.
We said we had come to see the pottery and she led us inside the most beautiful, traditional Japanese country house. There was a lovely stone entrance hall where we took off our shoes and then stepped up into the shop area which had a traditional clay cooking pit in the middle of the polished wooden floor. From this room, we were led into the main living area with tatami flooring, shoji screens and a veranda opening out onto the garden. The lady gestered for us to take a seat on the veranda, so we duly pulled up a straw cushion and sat down not knowing what to do. She magically reappeared in front of us bestowing a tray of iced green tea and homemade biscotti - pure bliss.


We immediately began to cool down sipping our iced green tea and admiring the view of the garden, the only noises interupting us were the occassional quacking of the ducks (well there would have to ducks wouldn't there?!) and the cutest little dog who wanted to nibble on our biscotti.




After taking as long as possible to finish our tea we browsed the pottery and decided to purchase a pretty little plate and salad bowl.





Yes, that is a real duck in the picture above! We put our shoes back on and headed out to the garden to admire the bonsai and look at the ducks, who had just produced the biggest silver blue duck eggs I have ever seen. I reluctantly said goodbye to this lovely little version of "The Good Life", although I briefly contemplated moving nearby and being just like Margo with Martin as my Jerry.


We drove on to an onsen village where we cooled down and admired the views of the valley from the Japanese baths. On our way back from the onsen we walked along the river and saw some fabulous flora and fauna.



We spotted this really huge butterfly with a wonderfully, intricate pattern on its wings.


We dabbled our feet in the cool river waters and then headed back to the city. It's not a bad life.