a summer sabbatical
taking a break from my software engineering job to spend 6 weeks in Japan at a 400-year old ceramics studio
My work gives us the perk in the form of a one-month paid leave every 5 years we’ve been at the company. I’m actually approaching 9 years there, so this “recharge” is long overdue. I haven’t taken it yet for a few reasons, the main one being that life and work gets in the way, so it’s hard to find the perfect time to step away and take a month off. But, as I’ve realized, there is no such thing as the perfect time to step away and take a month off 🤷🏻♀️
Since I’m approaching my 10 years, and therefore almost getting my second recharge, I decided to put my foot down this year and take it no matter what happens. It felt like some kind of a mental exercise - having worked at the same company for 9 consecutive years (and therefore never having the luxury that some of my friends have had of taking some time off between jobs), I am now forcing myself to, in the age of exciting AI things and impending layoffs, switch gears and take time for myself.
picking the location
We get a calendar month off, and are allowed to tack on up to 2 weeks of PTO to it, so I decided to go all out and do the full 6 weeks. I’ve had a few ideas over the years of how to spend this time - a friend of mine once gave me the inspiration to use it to learn a new skill. I don’t really want to be traveling for a full month - that seems exhausting, and being a tourist is something I could do with my regularly-scheduled PTO vacations. I wanted to do something I really couldn’t do on any other normal 1 week vacation.
On the shortlist of ideas was going to pasta school in Italy, taking scuba diving lessons in South East Asia, taking ceramics classes in Japan, and, for the lazier version of myself, just spending a month in Crete or Malta on the beach and learning yoga.
I went with Japan for a few reasons:
I want to stay in one country, to avoid too much fatigue from flying/long distance traveling
and Japan seems like a great country with a lot to do and eat for 6 weeks
I’ve never been to Japan, whereas I go to Europe frequently, so it feels like a great time to explore someplace new
I love Japanese food; I won’t tire of it after 6 weeks (the Asian in me just doesn’t think she can handle European food every day for 6 weeks…)
Japan has great public transit, which would make sightseeing and day trips very easy if I picked a good home base
Over the last few years, I’ve taken a few ceramics classes here and there and really enjoyed them! And Japan seems like the perfect place to learn, with its rich history of ceramics
planning the trip
Having never been to Japan and now needing to plan for 6 weeks there, I didn’t really know where to begin. I have a tradition of buying a Lonely Planet guide every time I travel to a new location, so I started there. ChatGPT helped a lot too - I wanted to spend a bit of time doing touristy things in Tokyo/Kyoto, spend a few weeks making pottery, and then spend the rest of my time in small towns, exploring the countryside and eating good seafood. I didn’t want to be moving around to new airbnbs too much, so picking a good home base was important as well.
First, I needed to get the touristy stuff out of the way. My boyfriend was planning to join for a week, so we settled on doing 4 days in Tokyo, 2 days Hakone, and 3 days in Kyoto, before he heads out and I’m then on my own.
There were some great pottery towns like Shigaraki and Kanazawa, but I quickly realized how hard it was finding a pottery studio that taught in English. I ended up picking Asahiyaki, in Uji, a studio that’s been around since the 1600s. Asahi ware was developed in Uji - it mainly consists of tea bowls, cold water vessels, and other utensils used for tea ceremonies. They have “free sessions” where you can buy passes to use the studio, and also lessons. As a (still relatively) beginner, I booked a wheel and handbuilding lesson. The location was also great as it’s right next to Kyoto, a town that I can spend a lot of time exploring, and is also close to a lot of other towns like Kobe, Nara, etc. that I can do day trips to on my off days. I actually booked my airbnb in Kyoto, and am just taking the bus to Uji every morning. I’m also really excited for the matcha!!
Japan has very hot and humid summers, but I heard Hokkaido is the place to be for locals to cool off in the summer. And it just happens to have great seafood (the last item on my bucket list), so this worked out perfectly! I wanted to stay in more of a small town, so I picked Otaru, which is about a 1.5 hour train ride from Sapporo. The plan here was just to relax, do some painting (I’m bringing all of my watercolors and crafts), catch up on my reading, peruse the seafood markets, and maybe take a few cooking classes. The perfect wind-down at the end of my trip.
follow along my journey!
I just landed in Tokyo - am sitting in the tea room of my hotel, nibbling on some rice crackers and sipping on tea as I type this out :) I haven’t written in so long and was never much of a writer, but I thought I’d push myself on this trip: it’s time to try new things and see what sparks joy.
I’m going to try to document as much as I can here! And if you happen to be on Tiktok, I plan to keep people up to date on there as well (@mcallisterranch / Annie in Japan).
