Candy

Most people know that gifts are important in Japan. One might bring a gift when visiting a home, or simply give a little tokens to people you know. It's not really as formalized as it's made out to be, but that's through the eyes of a gaijin.

Similar to gifts are おみやげ (omiyage which are souvenirs. These are little bits of candy or sweets brought back from travel, and each region of Japan has some variety or variation of sweets associated with that place. Many Japanese know this information by heart and can name the food and sweets from that area. With that in mind, the one souvenir I really wanted to share and give out was maple sugar candy! Sure, I ordered it in bulk from Canada and not New England, but same thing. Handed some out today to my Tuesday class, the moment I offered it their eyes widened and everyone was very excited to have a taste. Most everyone liked it, though I think the sweetness surprised some of them.

Other than that, in painting class had a discussion with Muraoka-sensei regarding the rest of the semester. As I have set aside my first painting, and have been practicing brush skill by copying, we talked about what I will do next. I have some ideas in mind, but I would like most to focus on different techniques of making color fields and backgrounds. Obviously there will be something on top of this, but the imaginative and ethereal qualities of the background in nihonga is very interesting to me. Also, I will have the opportunity to use iwa-enogu paints, which are a higher quality and handle somewhat differently from from the doro-enogu I have been using.