Girl with Japanese Heritage goes into a mythological realm

I read this book when I was young and I can't for the life of me remember the title or the author. I'm pretty sure it was a Japanese author. It was about this girl who moved towns and went to her relatives herb shop, I think she had magic chalk or something she used to draw on the outside pavement with...Then she was transferred to some mythological place where all these Japanese creatures were. I remember clearly the girl was going into adolescence...I think the book cover had the girl standing over this large well or bowl with water in it.
Anyways, if anyone can decipher that it would be a miracle...Thanks.

I thought maybe The Twelve Kingdoms, but I think what you're after predates that. You might want to check titles listed in this topic from the Fantasy Fans group: http://www.librarything.com/topic/100702

Yes, I think I read it in 1999, definitely before 2002. It lends more towards children's fiction than young adult. Wow, it's driving me insane.

This is a tough one! Do you remember what the Japanese creatures in the mythological place were like? I mean, if they were specifically Japanese mythological animals or just fantasy creatures the author invented? If they were Japanese you could probably find a reference to the story in a book about Japanese mythological creatures in literature. Otherwise you might possibly be able to find an article (somewhere?) that references magic chalk or pictures coming to life in Japanese literature because there's a few stories that feature the same idea, The Magic Chalk by Abe Kobo is a famous one but this is a short story and definitely for adults. The other one is The Boy Who Drew Cats by Lafcadio Hearn.
Sorry this is probably not helpful! I have some Japanese friends so will ask around.

Omg, I found it! Thank you, your suggestion about looking up the mythological creatures themselves lead me to it. I looked up Japanese creatures, Kappa came up which rung a bell. An author who wrote "The Kappa Child" came up and turns out it's the same author as the book I was looking for. It was "The Water of Possibility" by Hiromi Goto.
Yay! Awesome.

Touchstone: The Water of Possibility by Hiromi Goto

That's great! Will have to read it, sounds very interesting!

That's great! Will have to read it, sounds very interesting!