Meet your host in Kagurazaka, one of Tokyo's last old neighborhoods, and step into a restored 80-year-old wooden house — a quiet room away from the crowds, with free-flow soft drinks throughout.

Your English-speaking instructor begins with a short illustrated talk on Katsushika Hokusai and "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" — how ukiyo-e woodblock prints were made, why the foam is shaped like claws, how the distant Mount Fuji anchors the composition, and how imported Prussian blue made it possible.

You then receive A3 watercolor paper with a light pencil guide, so nobody starts from a blank page.

Next you paint, using gansai (traditional Japanese watercolor pigments) and Japanese brushes to build up the blues layer by layer. The instructor demonstrates brush pressure, gradation and lifting out white foam, then helps each guest individually. Crayons are available for texture and accents. Follow Hokusai's classic palette or reinterpret the wave in your own colors.

Finally, you sign your work where a Japanese artist's seal would traditionally sit and leave with your finished A3 artwork the same day — then explore Kagurazaka's sloping lanes and hidden alleys on your way back.