Photos and stories from Japan

Hello friends!

I haven't told you a whole lot about my Japan trip yet, and I wanted to share some photos and impressions with you. My friend (@anikeru - Please go follow her. She's an amazing artist) and I went to Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, and Uji, two weeks in total. I'm not going to be able to talk about everything we did and saw in detail⸺then we'd still be here by tomorrow⸺but I wanted to share my favourite places with you.

My favourite day was the one we spent in Uji, which is a town only 30 minutes away from Kyoto, between Kyoto and Nara. I got the tip from a lovely follower at the Leipzig Book Fair this year; they said they had lived in Kyoto and that Uji is a must, and so we went! The town is beautiful, with a river, scenic bridges (one's an important location in The Tale of Genji), temples, little shopping streets, and incredibly delicious food! It's the birthplace of matcha, and there is matcha-themed food everywhere: ice cream, mochi, cha soba (green matcha noodles), and so much more. We walked around, ate, got sunburnt, and just had a wonderful day there. My highlight was a group of tiny Japanese girlscouts who were raising money to protect the environment. They went really quiet when I walked up to them and gave them a donation, and I thought I had scared them to death, but then we saw them later, and they waved and asked to take photos with us. They were so adorable!

The view from one of the bridges. At this point, it was still cloudy.

A beautiful tea house situated by the river.

Delicious cha soba. We had one of the best meals (if not the best) of the trip here.

My second favourite thing we did was visit the deer park in Nara. This place is no secret, but that doesn't make it less inviting. I was amazed at how skilled the deer were at navigating life in the city. They even stopped and waited at red traffic lights before they crossed the street, and they bowed politely to ask for rice crackers, but sometimes weren't so polite, and ran after us, or chewed on our clothes. When you drive up by bus, you can already see them hanging out by the street, where the crackers are sold, and where all the tourists are feeding them. But if you walk a little bit further into the park, it's actually a very quiet and peaceful place that has some ancient-looking trees, and that leads right into the forest. It was beautiful, and you might have seen the painting I did of it last month.

Here's a baby who thought everyone was his/her mommy.

And here's a deer kindly posing for my photo. I gave him/her a cracker as a reward!

It was an incredible trip. I felt so energised and creatively recharged afterwards, I got to practice my rudimentary Japanese a little bit, and I can't wait to be back for my creative residency in March/April next year⸺right in time for sakura season! Expect more Japanese-themed paintings in the future, because I've got material for over a year.