a japanese winter wonderland

When I was living in Japan, I got a chance to travel to Nagano for some skiing and sight seeing. It was really beautiful there, especially the view from the top of the mountains. The drive to get to Nagano in the wintertime is surreal. Basically, you're driving through this huge trench of snow or ice. Even something as mundane as taking a short walk from the hostel to a local tavern was really nice.

There are some places that I didn't get to see. One of them was the Jigokudani Monkey Park. It's famous for its Japanese Macaques that hang out in the thermal springs every winter. I had no idea about this park when I was living in Japan, and when I heard about it, I was kicking myself for not learning about it earlier. This just gives me a good reason to go back.

For the bridge environment, I envisioned the player being stuck on a bridge in front of Himeji Castle. I'd like to create another environment that's a dojo that's on the water with the monkeys and a waterfall like this in the background. These were some pictures I found for inspiration.