This past weekend, I had an fantastic time–from painting in the Japanese nihonga style to taking a trip to Osaka. On Friday, half of our global seminar visited the atelier of Professor van Tonder’s wife where we were able to see many of her nihonga works. She then led us in crafting our own nihonga paintings. It was a very arduous process that required a lot of patience (and hopefully, good weather conditions). We started by sketching our design on paper and then transferred it to the paper canvas. After that, we watched her prepare the ink that we then used to outline our sketches. Afterwards, we applied a white paint that would be the adhesive for the other paints we would use later on. We applied layers upon layers of paints onto the canvas, waiting between each application for the paint to dry out. The most intense part was the application of gold leaf to the canvas; the windows were closed, and everyone held their breath as we glued the gold onto the painting.

On Saturday, several classmates and I went to Osaka to visit Osaka Castle. Walking up to the castle, we were surrounded by a very beautiful complex. The Castle itself had an amazing view of Osaka, and we went through each floor of the Castle to view the museum exhibits that explained the history associated with the Castle’s construction and destruction.

Oh, yeah. I visited a Pokémon Center. Pikachu plushies for life. 😛