A pottery town with a lane walled in drainpipes
Tokoname, south of Nagoya, is one of Japan's six oldest pottery centers, and its old workshop quarter is still full of brick chimneys and kilns. Follow the Pottery Footpath, a signed walking route, down a slope walled in clay pipes and past a kiln that climbs a hillside, then paint a piece of pottery yourself. It is about 30 minutes from Nagoya by Meitetsu train, on the line to Chubu Centrair airport.
A sloping lane whose walls on both sides are built from stacked clay drainpipes and old shochu bottles, shochu being a Japanese distilled spirit. Even the path underfoot is set with broken pieces from the kilns, laid there to keep feet from slipping.
A signed walking route through the old pottery quarter, past brick chimneys, kiln workshops and narrow lanes. The short course takes about an hour, and you can pick up a map at the Tokoname Ceramic Hall, where it starts.
The last noborigama left in Tokoname: a kiln built as a row of chambers climbing a slope, with ten chimneys of different heights standing along its side. It fired pottery until 1974, and you can look at it up close for free.
A hall beside the climbing kiln where you can step inside an old kiln chamber and see its brick walls from within. You can also paint a piece of Tokoname ware on the day, with no booking needed. Entry is free, and it is closed on Wednesdays.
The house of a shipping merchant family whose wooden ships carried Tokoname pottery, rice and other goods to Edo, today's Tokyo. Inside are their furniture, pottery and a model of one of the ships. It is closed on Wednesdays.