🎨 Artwork Journey: Firefly Festival, Japan
Lupita & Tomoko at the Firefly Festival in Miyakonojo City
🎨 Artwork Journey
Artwork Journey is a section of the Emily Lupita ❤️🔥 Creativity Series featuring new Lupita paintings I made while reflecting on my world journey - with accompanying short travel essays.
Lupita & Tomoko at the Firefly Festival
By Emily Lupita
Near Miyakonojo City, Japan 2001
About the Painting:
I created this painting from a picture I’ve treasured for the last twenty years. It shows me and my dear friend, Tomoko, getting ready to attend the firefly åfestival in Miyakonojo City, Japan. I was an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) from 2001-2004. I was assigned to teach at Izumigaoka Koko, an academic high school in Miyakonojo City, Miyazaki Prefecture.
This was the first festival I attended in Japan. I met Tomoko at the karate dojo of Hirakawa Sensei and she became a close friend. Before the firefly festival, a few of us ladies from the dojo got together at my apartment to get dressed up and ready together. This painting shows Tomoko making the ribbon on the obi 帯 (belt/band) of my yukata 浴衣 (a summer kimono made out of cotton). She was tying it in the front so she could teach me how to do it, then the bow slides around to the back in the finished look.
The firefly festival was like a beautiful, luminous dream. There were lanterns lighting a pathway through the trees at the park. There were incredible food stalls. There was a group of talented musicians drumming. Afterwards, we all met up at the karate dojo and had an evening outdoor bbq at the river nearby…under the stars. This day has always been one of my most special moments from my time in Japan.
Good journey,
❤️🔥Emily Lupita
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