Shizuoka thumbnails

I've always wanted to see the other side of Japan. We tend to spend most of my time visiting the big cities so this year we decided to go to a hot springs deep in the mountains. We've been to Hakone before but we wanted to try something more quite and rural.


Once again we didn't get a chance to sketch so I did this color key study later from memory.

It turned out to be quite an adventure. We took an old steam locomotive up through the mountains and it was an amazing experience. I've rode steam locomotives before but I've never experienced anything like this. This is the only steam train still running in Japan so people get really excited when they see it. Everywhere you looked there were photographers and townsfolk waving and cheering when the train passed. We even passed a spa and all the nude bathers got out of the hot spring and waved at us... its not every day that you get tons of nude people waving at you when you pass.

Here's a quick study of Mika and her mother sitting at the dinner table... They were both wearing the same cloths and did their hair up in the same style.