On one Saturday morning, groups of people of all ages and nationalities were found busy kneading clay or making their own ceramic products at a small house in Ho Chi Minh City’s central District 1.
The residence, owned by a Japanese couple, has been serving as a venue for locals and expatriates to explore Vietnamese culture through ceramic making and cooking classes.
Known by the name Overland Club, the school has been up and running since 2001 under the management of Tomizawa Mamoru, a Japanese man who has spent the past 14 years working and living in Vietnam.
“I used to take part in a project of a friend of mine to travel across Europe and Asia,” he explained his reason for setting up the school. “Anywhere I go, I want to learn new things of the locals. So why not opening a small center to introduce Vietnamese culture to foreigners?”
Tomizawa took part in a Japanese non-governmental program about tourism and education and visited Vietnam in 1995 after an earthquake in his hometown, Kobe City, robbed the man off his home, family and career.
He spent months in the Bat Trang Village in Hanoi learning the locals’ centuries-old ceramic making craft before opening Overland Club in HCMC in 2001.
But it was a rocky road for the club during its first years in operation, Doanh Nhan Sai Gon Cuoi Tuan (Saigon Businessmen Weekend) Magazine reported.
“In 2001, when the club was first formed, there were only a handful of people registering to take part in the classes,” the club’s owner recalled. “So I later teamed up with travel agencies to bring tourists to the facility and helped them to learn about Vietnamese culture and arts.”
He said it was then that the name Overland Club became known to more people.
The club also helped its owner to meet his wife, a Japanese college graduate who was one of the first students of the school.
“I have been learning how to make ceramics here for the past three years,” a Kiwi student said. “This is not an easy thing to do but really interesting.”
About 100 students, mostly of whom are expats and foreign tourists, register to receive lessons of pottery making and Vietnamese cuisine every month at the club, at 36 Bis Huynh Khuong Ninh Street, Da Kao Ward, District 1.
There are also special class opened once or twice a month, ranging form cooking lessons of European cake, traditional Japanese food, Indian food, Korean food, Thai food to Vietnamese folk music class and ao dai (Vietnamese traditional tunic-dress) sewing class.
Tomizawa who has been working with 15 Vietnamese artisans at the club for the last 14 years said he was impressed by the locals’ optimistic spirit.
“I have traveled through many developed countries where people are too busy and exhausted to the point some died from over working,” the club’s owner said. “But in Vietnam, everyone lives happily and always thinks of their problems in life in a positive way.”
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