Try Rendering a Spring Dream

This article reveals the planning and strategy behind one of HavefunwithAIch's YouTube releases—from thumbnails to audience targeting.

As you can see from the thumbnail, the theme of this Dream Visualization is spring in Japan.

The Japan shown here is fictional—created using Recraft and Ray2—
but even so, it's grounded in something real.

We believe the atmosphere speaks for itself.

If you're from Japan, we hope this stirs a quiet sense of nostalgia.
And if you're not, perhaps you'll see a side of Japan you've never seen before.

From here, I will introduce the places I imagined—following the order they appear in the video.

This is Sendai City, in Miyagi Prefecture.
Since the visuals were generated by AI, they’re not an exact replica.
But I believe the atmosphere comes through just enough to give you a sense of the place.

I originally imagined Toyama Prefecture,
but what came out looks more like Kanazawa, perhaps.
Still, the result had a quiet, wabi-sabi charm to it—so I adopted it without hesitation.

This was meant to be Tamagawa, specifically somewhere in Setagaya Ward.
But, as you might expect, things didn’t go quite as planned.
What emerged is a riverbank that isn’t anywhere in particular—
and yet, it somehow feels like it could exist somewhere in Japan.

As a long-time Hanshin Tigers fan, this stadium is sacred ground for me.
It’s also the stage for Japan’s iconic high school baseball tournaments.
Of course, this isn’t the real thing—but the atmosphere is unmistakable.
For me, that was enough.

I originally specified the area near Mōri Garden in Roppongi—
but what appeared looked more like Keyakizaka Street.
While the road width and layout differ quite a bit,
it still reminds me of the open plaza just outside the station,
where seasonal events are often held.
In spring, the area is lit up at night with cherry blossoms,
and this image captures a hint of that mood.

This is the Seto Ōhashi Bridge, connecting Honshu and Shikoku.
They say that in spring and autumn, large whirlpools like these appear in the surrounding waters.
I say “they say” because—well—I’ve never seen it for myself.
This one’s purely based on information I’ve read.

This is Ueno.
As a child, I would come here to play now and then.
And as an adult, I’d sometimes stop by during breaks from work.
Those buildings in the background—not quite skyscrapers,
but urban in their own humble way—feel oddly nostalgic to me.

I originally had Sakai City in mind—
but what came out looks more like a quiet residential area in Saitama or Wakayama.
Not quite urban, not entirely rural.
To me, it feels like a version of modern Japan that still holds on to a hint of the Shōwa era.

I was aiming for Itabashi—
the neighborhood where my grandparents and my mother were born and raised.
In my childhood memory, Itabashi meant expressways and exhaust fumes,
public bathhouses, rice cracker shops,
and old wooden houses lining backstreets behind gleaming buildings on the main roads.

But perhaps the image I had was too rich—
what came out ended up being an entirely different place.

Still, there was something I liked about it:
a schoolyard-like open space,
and rows of houses with no road dividing them—
a little touch of Shōwa-era Japan that felt familiar enough to keep.

This was meant to be Mount Aso.
But perhaps I leaned a little too far into the countryside.
The shape, the ridgeline… the mountain doesn’t quite match.

And yet—
there’s a certain quiet charm here.
Maybe it’s the cherry blossoms that keep it tethered to Japan,
however loosely.

This is meant to be Shiretoko.
Though truthfully, I’ve never seen it for myself—
so it might look nothing like the real thing.

Those bare trees reaching out toward the sea...
they’re meant to be cherry blossoms.
Still dormant, even now—
waiting for spring to find them.

This is Ishigaki.
I’ve never actually seen it in person,
but something about this feels just right—
the mood, the light, the colours.

If I had to complain…
it’d be that mischievous little detail:
a painted centerline
on what is clearly a one-lane road.

Typical AI.

And finally—Nagasaki,
the city where my father was born and raised.

Here, the mountains and the sea live side by side.
The city is known for its steep slopes,
and yes—the trams really do exist,
though they’re not quite the colour you see here.

A small aside:
Ray2 got a little too excited about finding the tracks.
Like a child, it started sending out a train every half-second,
and simply wouldn’t stop.

It was… a problem.

Not just a YouTube channel — a channel where tools are tested and compared with extensive knowledge and practice, pushing the limits of AI.