Do You Have Some Leftover Pottery?

Lee and I have been three times to Seto, a city near here famous for it's pottery.  But we have learned that it isn't the only place.  I'm sure there are several other places in Japan where pottery is big.  There is a town called Tokoname near the Nagoya airport where the skyline is filled with old smoke stacks from the brick kilns of yesteryear. (In one period, there were 3,000 active kilns, which means 3,000 active smokestacks.) They have made so much pottery, they have a Ceramic Park Research Institute there.

So what did they do with leftover pottery and ceramics?  They helped build the city with it.  It is very hilly there; very little seems to be on the "level."  So they needed to make all the hillsides secure from erosion.  Pottery was the answer.  You can walk around quite a large area, and you are reminded that this is a pottery town, no matter where you look.  The street, the walls, the fences, the homes, the decor.

Take a look:

Sidewalk.

A closeup of on of the many old chimneys.  Sister Barney, Sister Kondo, Sister Hara.

Pottery and ceramic shops abound.

Now how is this for a fun retaining wall.

I could have looked at these all day.

Not sure what these little disks were used for, but now they are a wall.

Note the rice bowls between the "posts."  

This is a "miscellaneous" wall.

I should have asked Sister Kondo, but I didn't.  What do you think?
Sake jugs?  I can't think of what else these could be?

Aren't these little guys cute?  Makes you want to take a nap!

I like her!  She has a kind face.

These guys should be in a story book.  Maybe they are!

A modern kiln.

Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil.

Maybe these used to have corks in them, and you could take the cork out when you were thirsty.

This was my favorite sidewalk.

We had to share this picture.  Behind me was a car parked in front of a home.
The only way it could have gotten there, unless it was lifted in by a helicopter, was
to drive on this 'road."  I straddled it so you could get a feel for how wide the road was.
All I can say about the narrow roads in Japan is "Amazing!"

Ceramic chopstick rests, made to look like lotus root,
(which, by the way, is delicious).

More chopstick rests.

Beautiful old kiln with smokestack.

How I look when I'm mad.

Even ceramic table and stools.

Now this is a pot with character.

How I look when I'm happy.

I've been tempted to start a chopstick rest collection,
but decided against it.  But they have so many darling
chopstick rests here.

Even "The Thinker" made it to Japan.

Koi in the pond, and this is probably a fountain in the summer.

A Japanese mailman.  Ours looks just like him.