One Saturday morning a group of people of all ages and nationalities are busy kneading clay or making ceramic products in a small house in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1.

The house, owned by a Japanese couple, is a popular destination for locals and expatriates seeking to explore Vietnamese culture through ceramic making and food.

Overland Club, as it is called, was established 2001 by Mamoru Tomizawa, a Japanese who has lived in Vietnam since 1996.

Tomizawa explains how he struck upon the idea of starting the club: “I used to take part in a friend’s project and traveled across Europe and Asia.

“Anywhere I went, I wanted to learn things about the locals. So why not open a small center to introduce Vietnamese culture to foreigners?”

He visited Vietnam in 1995 under a Japanese non-governmental program on tourism and education after an earthquake in his hometown, Kobe, destroyed his home, family, and career.

He spent months at Bat Trang village in Hanoi learning the locals’ centuries-old ceramic craft before opening Overland Club in HCMC.

But it was a rocky road in the early years, he told Doanh Nhan Sai Gon Cuoi Tuan (Saigon Businessmen Weekend) magazine.

“In 2001, when the club opened, there were only a handful of people registering to take part in the classes. So I teamed up with travel agencies to bring tourists to the facility and helped them to learn about Vietnamese culture and arts.”



Most of the club’s students are expats and foreign touristsPhoto courtesy of Doanh Nhan Sai Gon Cuoi Tuan


It was after that the name Overland Club became known to more people, he said.

The club helped him meet his future wife Yuki, a Japanese university graduate who was among his first students.

“I have been learning how to make ceramics here for the past three years,” a student from New Zealand said. “It is not easy but really interesting.”

Around 100 students, mostly expats and foreign tourists, learn to make pottery and Vietnamese food every month at the club located at 36 Bis Huynh Khuong Ninh Street, Da Kao Ward, District 1.

Once or twice a month there are also special classes teaching people how to make European-style cakes, Japanese, Indian, Korean, or Thai food, perform Vietnamese folk music, or make the ao dai (the traditional Vietnamese tunic).

Tomizawa, who works with 15 Vietnamese artisans at the club, is bowled over by the optimism he sees in this country.

“I have traveled in many developed countries where people are too busy and exhausted to the point that some even die of overwork.

“But in Vietnam, everyone lives happily and thinks of problems in a positive way.”

Doanh Nhan Sai Gon Cuoi Tuan