Even though I saw a lot on my vacation, this became somewhat of a pottery tour. I began and ended with the purchase of pottery.
In Japan I bought two porcelain bowls and a tea mug. Both bowls would work well together combined into one serving piece.
In Yixing, I bought a teapot from one of the sellers near the pottery museum. The family was very nice and they are artists who make many of their teapots.
The teapot had bamboo etched on one side and Chinese characters on the other. The cups were bought in a different store.
The family invited me to drink tea with them. This is the daughter of the owner of the store and one of the artists.
They were very nice and even through broken English and Chinese we were able to converse. The translate feature in We chat is helpful too. The best part of traveling is meeting new people.