Hi!   I have decided to start a city journal for several reasons: first of all, it is my desire to show my work and to get some feedback, in order to improve my game; secondly, a thread like this one will keep me motivated in working in one region, instead of restarting regions again and again; finally, i may be able to help some other players who are looking for some bats, and getting myself helped with some doubts and other subjects instead of creating a new topic everyday.   Unlike some other cityjournals that are awesome (Tonraq, for example, which is a big inspiration), i will not use storytelling.   Well, the Region that i will use is poshbakerloo's The Grand Valley (which you can find here: ).In the right side of the map, i will be inspired by japanese cities, and in the left, by chinese ones.    However, since the amount of asian buildings its not very high, some architectonical characteristics of the cities may overlapp. Although this may be true, i will start with a main characteristic  of chinese cities (at least from my point of view) as a differentiation factor: repeated residential mid rises and highrises (like the ones made by HKBT). Let's see in the future if i can diferentiate the two areas in other ways.   I am mixing a growing style with a plopping one. This has some disadvantages (i would be glad to hear some advices regarding this), but at least i don't get burned out in a particular city (since i have some different work to do there) and my computer won't be very slow i hope.    Another problem that i have to solve is the inexistence of lights in my cities (lol), but let's first develop the region a bit   I also want some advice regarding traffic simulator mods, to see if my rhw is fully functional.   Finally i have downloaded photoscape but i am a newbie at it, so don't expect, at least for now, some brilliant photoshops     This first city is still being developed. The name of it is Akaraku, and it is a suburban japanese city near the river coast. Today i can just post some close shots from a neighborhood, and i hope next week or something i can post a overall view of the city.       This photo captures one of Akaraku's school, with a nearby hospital, a residential mid rise and some residential houses     Here, there are some residentials, with a religious building (honestly don't know if it is a cemetery or a standard praying building :S) in a lake (next pic).     This is an artificial lake, with some strange beaches and some nice trees.       These next three pics capture a comercial area with some agriculture nearby and with a temple and a nearby highway.                   An older comercial area with some residential buildings:       Some developments in the main avenue of this area: