2026 Cultural Tour of Japan

So here we are just a couple of days out from a group of TCA members heading to Japan. This Cultural Trip began as a conversation between three of us - Lisa Wise, Christine Crisp and Kay Carney, we each wanted to visit Japan with the view of visiting some major ceramic towns and the Bizen Festival. So what started out as a 'maybe we could arrange a tour,' grew into this group of 12 ceramicist travellers, lead and organised by Lisa Wise, travelling from Tokyo to Kyoto and beyond.

Over the next coming weeks I will be posting some of the tour highlights and sharing some of the experiences that our group will be experiencing.

Lisa and partner Paul have done an amazing job organising this cultural tour where we intend to attend a few workshops and experience first hand the amazing wonders that Japan has to offer. Although we see Japan as a totally modern country - it is also deeply steeped in tradition, with many areas outside of the main cities remaining quite rural and authentic.

Japan is considered as one of the safest places to travel, and along with that fact the people are extremely friendly and welcoming to tourists.

I look forward to sharing our adventure with you all and hope you enjoy each instalment as we roam the towns and countryside of 'old' Japan which is peppered with ancient kilns sites and traditional Japanese ceramic districts which are still operating today.