Yeoju Pottery

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to visit Yeoju-gun, about 90 miles southeast of Seoul. Known for their pottery shops, this town is an odd mixture of traditional small city and tourist destination. 

Aside from the extra large kimchi pots and rooms literally overflowing with china, I was most fascinated with the unity of work and home. Several of the smaller shops we visited were underneath the homes of the craftsman. I observed small gardens, crates of sweet potatoes and peppers and beans drying out in the open and in most instances, in the way of anyone walking through the shop. I know that traditional Korean cooking is very much about the "heart", so seeing the future ingredients of their meals out in the open was moving to me. Their lives are completely intertwined.