Photo Tour of Japan | Blue Pond

Feb 22 | Evan | No Comments |

If you have a Mac, there is a good chance you have seen Blue Pond or Aoi Ikke before as it is one of the National Geographic photos is a desktop photo that comes with Mac OS.  While I would love to visit this lake and Hokkaido in the Winter, we were visiting the Shirogane Onsen area in the fall.  While technically it is in Biei, the Blue Pond is about an hour drive from Asahikawa and about 2 hours from Sounkyo Onsen.  Whether you are coming from Sounkyo, Asahikawa or even Sapporo, I would recommend adding Aoi Ikke to your itinerary for Hokkaido!

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That being said, finding information about the Blue Pond in English, might prove to be a little harder than you would think!  If you have time, I would recommend first stoping at the information center before making your way to Blue Pond as they can provide a map of the area that is helpful for exploring, hiking and just finding your way around.  Here is the a link to the google map where the Blue Pond is located.  There is no opening or closing time, so you can go as early in the morning you want to wait for that great morning light.  On a clear day, you can also see the mountains of Daisetsuzan National Park.

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More from this photo tour of Japan is coming soon!  Here is the list of the places we visited and photographed in Japan.

Interested in your own custom photo tour and experiences in Japan?  Contact Japan Photo Guide today to start your adventure!

Photo Tour of Japan | Lake Daisetsu

Feb 21 | Evan | No Comments |

Lake Daisetsu is about 10 minutes from the Sounkyo Onsen area and there are a couple of different places to take photos.  Our group traveling around Japan drove around one part of the lake looking for the angle we liked best and then found parking as close to where we wanted to photograph the lake as possible.  I can’t say it was the safest place as we ended up on the bridge, but I can say that nobody got hurt… although a filter was lost over the edge.

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On a clear day you can see the mountains of Daisetsuzan National Park.  Like most landscape opportunities, weather and light play a huge role in the images you can make here.  Like our says in Shiretoko, we had rain for quite some time at Lake Daisetsu but since it was just a 10 minute drive from our hotel in Sounkyo, we were able to come back again for slightly better weather.

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More from this photo tour of Japan is coming soon!  Here is the list of the places we visited and photographed in Japan.

Interested in your own custom photo tour and experiences in Japan?  Contact Japan Photo Guide today to start your adventure!

Photo Tour of Japan | Kamikawa Angus Farm

Feb 15 | Evan | No Comments |

About 40 minutes by car from Sounkyo Onsen, and minutes away from Kamikawa Town, is an area famous for landscapes of hills and plains along with The Daisetsuzan Mountain Range in the background.  The sun rises on the far side of the mountains and if you come here in the afternoon, the sun will set so that the light is hitting the mountains.  As the title implies, there are also lot’s of angus cows grazing on the grounds but when we went, most of them were in other areas (it’s a big big space).  On the Sounkyo Tourism page, they don’t have anything about the farmland but they do mention a new garden, “forest”/tourist attraction called the Garden of the Taisetsu Forest and a restaurant called Fratella di Mikuni which are  literarily across the street from this landscape area.  If you take a look at their website, not only can you see the menu/food but there is also information about staying in one of their villas.  On their Facebook page, even if you can’t read Japanese, you can see lot’s of photos of the Daisetsuzan Mountain Range during various times of the year.

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When we were there, it was the restaurant’s day off and the garden/forest wasn’t finished yet, but the whole area is very pleasant and relaxing!  As you can see, weather permitting, it also could offer some spectacular views!

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More from this photo tour of Japan is coming soon!  Here is the list of the places we visited and photographed in Japan.

Interested in your own custom photo tour and experiences in Japan?  Contact Japan Photo Guide today to start your adventure!

Photo Tour of Japan | Sounkyo Ropeway

Feb 14 | Evan | No Comments |

The station for Sounkyo Ropeway is next to the visitor’s information center in Sounkyo Onsen and the “town center” which has most of the restaurants, small shops and convenient stores in the area.  It’s kind of like a really small strip mall.  Don’t expect too many choices, but you can find the standard ramen, curry, soba, udon and so on.  The Sounkyo Ropeway consists of two levels, the cable car and then dual chair lift to go even higher.  Stopping at the first level is probably good enough for most people and on the roof of the station, there is a nice observation deck offering spectacular views of Sounkyo Onsen area and other mountains of Daisetsuzan National Park.

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I recommend going either early in the morning (when these photos were taken) or for sunset.  The general hours are from 6am – 7pm in the summer but different in the winter.  You can check with your hotel or download the English Brochure PDF  here to see more information, all hours during the year.  If you can read Japanese, or want to translate the website, here is the Sounkyo Ropeway website.

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More from this photo tour of Japan is coming soon!  Here is the list of the places we visited and photographed in Japan.

Interested in your own custom photo tour and experiences in Japan?  Contact Japan Photo Guide today to start your adventure!

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