An invisible matte painting is one where it looks just like reality - no Hudson River school stuff, nothing overly dramatic, just an attempt to recreate reality.

Takachiho-jo (Takachiho Castle)

Note: There is no Takachiho-jo in real life. Takachiho is the name of the town about 45km from Nobeoka where the background for this painting was shot. The castle is Shuri-jo in Okinawa.

If you're curious about the source plate, here it is:
Source plate

The four main islands of Japan that is (Honshu, Kyushu, Hokkaido and Shikoku)

For my yearly trip with the English teachers, we went to Shikoku, Ehime Prefecture. Matsuyama, the capital (and where we visited) is famous for it's castle, and the fact that it has the oldest onsen (hot spring bath) in Japan. Being Japanese people, my teachers think nothing about driving for 4 hours to take a bath in a room that looks just like the room they normally take a bath in ;) It was a nice onsen, but very crowded, and indoors, so you really are just looking at 4 wooden walls, much like anywhere else you'd go.

The castle was cool, we took a chair lift up to the top of the mountain and then walked around the building. It's not quite as spectacular as nijo-jo in Kyoto, but you are allowed to take pictures inside, which was a bonus :)

On the ferry ride over, I took a ton of pictures that I will hopefully use for reference material for matte paintings...not posting those, 'cause how many "tree covered island" shots do you guys really want to see? *grin*

Here are the photos from the trip:

Nobetaka English Department 2008 retreat