June Recap: My Journey to Discover Japanese Aesthetics

More than a trip, this was a deep learning journey about “beauty”.

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Travel in Tokyo

Japan

Study Camp Highlights

LET'S SET 

OFF TOGETHER

Discovering Japanese Aesthetics

A cartoon aeroplane flying across the frame
Snow-capped Mount Fuji rising above a Japanese town and its main street

Some say

Japan is a countrywith "aesthetics" carved into its very bones

From the spirited heroes of anime to the quiet torii gates of its shrines

From cherry blossoms drifting beneath Mount Fuji to kimonos gliding through the streets of Kyoto

this land shows the world, in its own way, what "beauty" means

Illustration of two travellers waving from the windows of a cream car
Students and parents by a lake holding a TREE ART and GaiaX Japan aesthetics camp banner
The whole group posing in front of a flower field and a lodge below misty hills

This summer, our students packed their brushes and their curiosity

and set off on a 7-day, 6-night"Journey to Discover Japanese Aesthetics"

They looked for inspiration in the world of anime

breathed in the scholarly air of a century-old university

felt the warmth of culture through traditional crafts

and completed artworks of their own among mountains and lakes


This was more than a trip.It was a deep study of "beauty" itself

Now, through the eyes of the students,

let us relive this luminous journey of aesthetic discovery

01

Meeting the World of Anime

Dream-Making Magic at the Tip of a Pen

Students in a classroom watching an anime scene projected on screen

At

amps Anime Schoolthe students met

real Japanese anime instructors

Not watching anime through a screen, but sitting in a classroom

from character proportions to facial expressions, from storyboarding to colouring techniques

Children sketching at long tables while a drawing demonstration plays on the projector screen
Two boys drawing character outlines in pencil at a classroom table
A girl in a pink hoodie and TREE ART apron leaning close over her drawing

learning manga drawing one stroke at a time

Every student who completed the coursereceived a school-issued

Official Certificate of Completion

Their first official certificate in the field of anime

A boy holding his amps certificate of completion beside a smiling instructor
Two students and a grandmother holding their amps certificates in the classroom
An instructor and three students in TREE ART shirts holding up their certificates
A parent, a student and an instructor holding amps certificates together
Still from the film Your Name: two students on shrine steps above a Tokyo street
When the classic scene from Your Name appeared in front of them, the children could not contain their excitement. The steps outside Suga Shrine are exactly where Makoto Shinkai had Taki and Mitsuha meet. The children were no longer onlookers; they were inside the story, feeling for themselves the particular play of light the film is known for.
The group climbing the long stone stairway to Suga Shrine under a row of lanternsTwo boys walking past a red torii gate and a rack of wooden ema plaques

DEPART IMMEDIATELY

Happy Moments

If Suga Shrine was "passion"

then theFujiko F. Fujio Museumwas "warmth"

Here, the students saw original manga manuscripts

and stepped into the fantastical world of Doraemon

Nobita's room, Shizuka's house, Gian's baseball field…

every detail recreated with lifelike fidelity

This is more than a museum

it is a generation's childhood memories made tangible

02

A Walk Through a Great University

Sketching the Future on a Century-Old Campus

Group photo under the ginkgo trees at the University of Tokyo behind a TREE ART and GaiaX banner

The world-leadingUniversity of Tokyo

revealed to the students another side of itself, where scholarship and romance intertwine

Strolling along the tree-lined paths of the century-old campus

a rich academic atmosphere came rushing toward them

Two children kneeling on the pavement to sketch a red-brick arcaded campus building
Students and teachers on the steps of an arched stone building on campus
Two boys sitting on the rim of a stone fountain on the tree-lined campus

The students spread out their paper on the spot

for an immersive plein-air sketching session

capturing century-old red brick and youthful energy together on the page

A seed of the future had quietly been planted in their hearts

Illustrated badge of Mount Fuji against a red sun, captioned Mountain Fuji

03

Between Mountains and Lakes

Nature Is the Greatest Palette

Children holding up their watercolour paintings of Mount Fuji beneath a rose-covered pergola

If the city is a feast of culture

then the scenery beneath Mount Fuji is nature's gift

On the shore of Lake Kawaguchi, along the cherry-blossom avenue, Mount Fuji stood majestically in the distance

The students set up their drawing boards amid the picturesque landscape

Illustration of a retro film camera
Three children painting Mount Fuji in watercolour on boards resting on a bench
Children painting Mount Fuji on a lakeside bench with hills and pampas grass behind

Unlike still-life drawing in a studio

the drifting clouds and layered mountain views

taught the students to capture the changing natural light

and to read the ease and healing of natural beauty among the hills

A boy in glasses painting a blue Mount Fuji in watercolour beside the lake

Aboard theHakone pirate shipthey cruised Lake Ashi

Distant mountains tinted blue-green, the lake shimmering with light

the students took in the whole scene of mountains mirrored in water

and savoured the distinctive charm of empty space and stillness in Japanese natural aesthetics

04

Craftsmanship Passed Down

Japanese Aesthetics at Your Fingertips

Students walking through a dyeing workshop lined with long tables of drying dyed panels
The group holding their finished hand-dyed tote bags outside the dyeing workshop

True aesthetics lie in touching and experiencing

The students stepped into aKyo-yuzen dyeing workshop

to feel the warmth ofJapan's national-treasure textile dyeing craftwith their fingertips

An instructor demonstrating brush dyeing while a girl in a TREE ART shirt watches closely
Two children brushing blue dye onto stencilled cloth beside bowls of pigment
An instructor helping two boys dye tote bags on newspaper-covered worktables

From pattern design to colouring and shading

every step calls for patience and focus

When a one-of-a-kind Kyo-yuzen piece was born in their hands

the students truly understood what the "artisan spirit" means

DEPART IMMEDIATELY

Highlights

In Japan,food is also an art

Under the guidance of professional instructors, the studentslearned to make sushi

From seasoning the rice to slicing the sashimi

from the pressure of the hands to the art of plating

every detail is pursued to perfection

As one exquisite piece of sushi after another took shape in their hands

the students not only tasted the delicacies they had made themselves

but also proudlyearned the second certificate of this study camp

and, amid the warmth of the kitchen, feltthe essence of Japanese culinary aesthetics

A girl in a pale blue floral kimono and pink obi in front of a bronze Buddha statue
At Senso-ji, Tokyo's oldest temple, parents and children changed into traditional kimono. Walking the old streets together, they learned how a kimono is designed and felt, first-hand, the Japanese sense of beauty that time has settled into place.
Mothers and daughters in summer kimono posing together on a shopping street
Families in kimono posing outside a flower shop in Asakusa
A woman and a girl in matching floral yukata beside a stone statue
Seven children in summer kimono outside a kimono rental shop
Three boys in navy yukata on an Asakusa street beneath a large paper lantern

My Trip

A boy and a woman in indigo yukata on a street beside a flower stall
A woman and two girls in yukata glancing back over their shoulders on a busy street
A woman and a girl in pale yukata holding hands on an Asakusa street

The Light Has Been Found; the Future Awaits

We believe every search for beauty will, at some moment in the future,

come back to these young people in unexpected ways

We look forward to the next journey, walking with the students

further down the road, toward an even more beautiful light

END