Random doodle

Something I drew while trying to draw hair with much more detail than usual. Colored it roughly using watercolor, too lazy to add shading and highlights. Doesn't look too bad I guess.

Japantrip 2009 part 4

After a nice snowy onsen soak and breakfast that morning, it was time to go to the next destination: Sapporo~

In the morning during breakfast it was somewhat foggy but it cleared up when we left for Sapporo.

Foggy Lake Shikotsu.

The icicles prove it was cold over there.

We have spent most of the time that morning driving to Sapporo. So nothing exciting happening...

Daytime Lake Shikotsu pics taken from the car.

Snowy hills.. Don't want that snow coming down.

Using frogs as signs makes you reluctant to run them over.

After arriving at the hostel it was time for some lunch. We decided to get some Miso ramen as that was one of the items on the Hokkaido to eat list. The strong and somewhat spicy soup warmed us up nicely.

The rental car had to be returned at 19.00 so we decided to drive to Otaru as we had plenty of time. Otaru is a small port town not far from Sapporo.(30 min drive) It is famous for its canal, glass factory and buildings of European design. Otaru, being on the north coast of Hokkaido, gets a lot of snow in the winter. Something that was very much confirmed when we arrived.

A tranquil Otaru port

Almost looks like a poor guy has been snowed in after falling asleep on the bench

Christmas tree made of Christmas trees.

The canal famous for the night view.

Another Christmas tree, but this one is made with illuminated glass balls.

Some balls up close

After walking around for a bit, it was time to return to Sapporo and return the car. Before we returned the car we had to fill it up but the navigation system proved to be not very accurate when it comes to gas stations. After finding one we experienced the very nice service of a Japanese gas station. The service being: a service person guiding you to a spot, filling up the tank, cleaning the windshield and telling you when it was safe to get back on the road again. Not getting that anywhere in the Netherlands.

The drop-off point was near Sapporo station so we also got to see the station a bit.

As we were quite hungry after returning the car we dropped by an izakaya for dinner. There one of the thing I had, was another item on the Hokkaido to eat list: Hokke. Hokke is a salted and sundried fish and prepared over a charcoal grill. As it is a fatty fish, the fat melts when grilled giving it a very nice taste and aroma. Goes perfectly with beer. I can recommend it to anyone.

Finished eating we returned to the hostel for some sleep.

Next post more about the days we spent in Sapporo.

Recent drawings...

I've restarted drawing a bit lately. I'm trying to draw using a tablet combined with SAI as drawing software. I must say I'm starting to get into drawing digitally. Undo is my best friend. Also I tried to do some coloring.
Here's what the result is.

I'm not entirely satisfied with the image. Folds and creases still are difficult even more in combination with shadows and lighting. But it suffices as an experiment with coloring techniques in SAI. I'll post the images I make on my pixiv account.

Pixiv is a japanese image sharing site where artist can show their work. Quite some artists upload there and there is some great artwork on there.(also crappy stuff like mine though) The site requires you to sign up and is in japanese. If you want to sign up but have trouble with japanese you can try this guide in english.

Japantrip 2009 part 3

Continuing where we left off.. Noboribetsu.

Theme of the day:

Ninja's

After having a nice morning soak at (6 am till 7 am) and some breakfast it was time to continue our journey.

Exploring the Ryokan for a bit we found a gift shop with an arcade...

The escalator to the gift shop and arcade

Where we found Doraemon...

After we seen enough of the ryokan it was time to depart. The skies cleared up and was looking quite good. It was a short walk to the car and Noboribetsu by daylight was quite bright..
The target destination was Lake Shikotsu. But before we would go there we decided to go to Noboribetsu Date Jidai Mura since we were in the neighborhood anyways. A more or less historical representation of a village during Edo period. It's actually more of a ninja theme park. Yea ninja's~

Front door of Noboribetsu Date Jidai Mura. With a friendly samurai welcoming us.

It was not as crowded when Danny Choo went (not very surprising looking at the weather)

After some trying our ninja skills using blowpipe and shuriken, we noticed some Hong Kong and Korean tour groups rushing to a building. Looking at the programme we found out it was time for the ninja show! The show was quite nice and it's clear why the tour groups were rushing. Showing your appreciation was also done in a special way. If you liked it you could put some coins in a sheet of paper, fold it up and throw it on stage.(Don't think the paper works as a good buffer when being hit but w/e)

Mad Ninja moves. Moving faster than the shutter of my camera...

After the show the tour groups rushed back to their buses. We decided to explore the rest of the village. The ninja maze was awesome. The sloped floors really got us and it was hard to walk through the maze. But since it was fun we went again and tried a speed run. It's a good thing the poles and edges of doors were covered with cushions...

There were two more shows we visited. One of the shows was about geisha's where someone from the audience gets on the stage to play the role of a Daimyo.(translated there as rich man~) Seeing how there were not many visitors and some of us were sticking out of the crowd (due to length) one of us was chosen which made the play much more interesting. The shows do require you to understand a bit of Japanese but are funny nonetheless.

Cat shrine in the village grounds nya~

It was quite late after we were done walking around. We quickly drove to the Ryokan we booked at Lake Shikotsu. It was already dark when we arrived at Lake Shikotsu so no pictures of Lake Shikotsu that day. After again a soak (at the lakeside this time), it was already time for dinner.

Dinner at the Ryokan

Dessert

After another after dinner soak it was time for sleep. Next destination in the next post.

4/1

I've been back for a while now but have been neglecting the blog ^^;;
Will update with more japantrip posts when I have sorted out the pictures.

Today is 4/1 and many companies do some major things to celebrate April fools.


Good Smile Company chose to extend the joke they did last year. A second movie with Asanon as main character was announced.

Type Moon prepared something much bigger. Just for 4/1 several Type Moon characters started a twitter account and started twittering for a day long. Most of the accounts are removed now and traces of the prank are being erased. At this moment Sion and Makidera's pages are still around. Also Kohaku's twitpic page and Shirou's seem to be alive
Some of the tweets:
Kohaku woke up first tweeting about patrolling the mansion to waking up Akiha and making breakfast. Saber's day compised of eating the food Shirou made, sleeping, sword maintenance and taking pictures of the food she ate... Rin is bad with computers and needed Archer's help to get on twitter. It didn't take many tweets before she gave up. At some moment Dark Sakura woke up and ate shinji. Quite some effort for an april fools prank but is was very amusing.

Google Japan created a special keyboard for japanese input

Nicovideo lost colors and went all black n white.

japantrip 2009 part 2

A bit late but i finally found some time to write up something about the trip. Expect more the coming days... I hope...

After the flight and arriving in tokyo to rest for a day, we flew to shin chitose, hokkaido. There was no snow so we were somewhat disappointed. After fixing the rental car we drove back to the airport to get wait and pick up the last member of the party. Driving on the left of the road with steering wheel right was different... (stupid direction indicator and windshield wiper lever also switched sides) After completing the party we found out the gods left us with a surprise... a nice coat of snow covering everything...

So the drive to noboribetsu, our first hokkaido destination and a hotspring resort, took longer than expected. As the snow fell recently the roads were not cleared and I had to drive by following the tracks other cars made.
After the expressway and a part of mountainous roads we finally arrived. We stayed at a ryokan which claims to have hotspring heaven. The different outdoor and indoor baths were hot and great. Great for warming you up after a long trip. First up was a buffet dinner with lots of hokkaido specialties like crab, squid etc... we went for a walk to help digestion.

The oni guarding? noboribetsu owakudani

The valley where people were not allowed in due to sulfur.

Sheep at noboribetsu also covered in snow

After the walk some necessary warming up was needed. So after a evening dip and a morning dip the morning after the next destination awaited...

Japantrip 2009 part one

Its 7.30 am. Waiting in arnhem on the train to Frankfurt which, leaves at 8:08. Its cold and dark outside. A preview of hokkaido...