Private and Custom Tour of Japan | Kamikochi

Aug 11 | Evan | No Comments |

After short stay in Tokyo, the private (hiking) tour of Japan would continue onto one of my favorite places in Japan, Kamikochi.  Kamikochi is located in Nagano Prefecture and is only open from April through October and can only be accessed by bus or taxi, not private car.  It’s a great place to escape the crowds of Japan and get in touch with nature.  Though nature is about all that there is in Kamikochi and they intend to keep it that way with their five rules, or as I like to say, the Kamikochi Five (nice ring to it).

Basically, you aren’t allowed to feed the wild animals, you cannot take anything away from or bring any foreign species into Kamikochi, you cannot litter and keep on the paths.  Speaking of the paths, they are mostly flat either raised wood, dirt or gravel.  Easy to walk for all ages.

Kamikochi really is a photographer’s and perhaps hiker’s dream.  For this private tour of Japan, we stayed in Kamikochi for 2 nights, but easily could have stayed longer to take more photos of the mountains, lakes and streams as well as exploring by foot the natural surroundings.  While we stayed on the flat terrain, as that was enough hiking for us, there are more challenging paths up the mountains.

And did I mention there are monkeys?  Monkeys always make for some interesting observing and photographic opportunities!  A few more monkey photos from our private tour in Kamikochi and then a gallery of more monkeys and a few photos of Kamikochi.

Private and Custom Tour of Japan | Tokyo and Cooking Experience

Aug 10 | Evan | No Comments |

If my previous private and custom tour of Japan was a photography and foodie tour of Japan, my next private tour of Japan was a photography and hiking tour of Japan!  I say hiking tour of Japan because we probably walked between 15km – 18km a day as it was Mike’s preference to walk whenever possible!  To be honest though, it’s not uncommon for us to walk around 10km per day in a normal tour, so we are always walking a lot in Japan, but we walked a little more in this photo tour of Japan!

We started out with a short stay in Tokyo and explored a lot of the popular spots like Shibuya, Harajuku, Akihabara, Ueno and so on, but also I arranged for Mike to have a private cooking lesson with a chef in her home.  I strongly believe that trying the food of Japan and meeting locals are very important for experiencing Japan, so a cooking lesson with a Japanese chef in her home is a great cultural experience!

Mike and Chef Yuca prepared about 5 different dishes representing a typical meal a family might have on any given night in Japan, including one of my favorites, gyoza, a Japanese version of a Chinese dumpling.  I’m always sad to leave Tokyo, but our hiking and photography tour of Japan would continue on to one of my favorite places in Japan, Kamikochi!

Private and Custom Tour of Japan | Hiroshima and Miyajima

Aug 05 | Evan | No Comments |

Even with the hot Summer weather in Japan, the private tour of Japan was going great!  We were eating too much food but walking almost cancel out all the Japanese food and sweets…. Well, at least walking enough around to make it worth eating all the food!  Miyajima, a small island off the coast of Hiroshima, is one of my favorite places in Japan to visit.  Miyajima is famous for the (sometimes) floating torii gate of Itsukushima Shrine and the “wild” deer that roam free on Miyajima.

As you can see from my photo of the torii gate at the top of this post though, even when the tide is out enough to walk up to the torii gate, interesting photos can still be made!  Besides Itsukushima Shrine and the deer, there are lot’s of photogenic places around Miyajima that vary with the season.  I particuallary like finding scenic spots of the 5 story pagoda as you may have noticed from some of my previous reports of Miyajima photography tours!

The photos below were created by and courtesy of Isabelle Nazha Photography. Check out Isabelle’s blog post for more of her photos and her report on our time in Hiroshima and Miyajima.

Created by and Courtesy of Isabelle Nazha Photography

Private and Custom Tour of Japan | Maiko Portrait Session in Kyoto

Aug 04 | Evan | No Comments |

Just another day of taking portraits in Kyoto!  Sometimes I have to take a step back and really appreciate these special portrait sessions in Kyoto as after developing a relationship with a tea house in Kyoto, portrait sessions with a maiko have become a special experience that I’ve been able to offer on almost all my recent photography tours of Kyoto.  Taking portraits of a real maiko is always one of the highlights of the tour and an unforgettable experience!

  

 

This portrait session was on a moderately hot Summer day in Kyoto.  You wouldn’t know it by the sunny weather we had, but it was also in the middle of the rainy season in Kyoto.  This means that we had a lot of green to work with!   Her beautiful purple kimono looked fantastic with all the green, green and more green!

 

We got lucky at our portrait location in Kyoto as the temple was actually undergoing a little renovation.  Between the renovation and being a little away from central Kyoto, we had the entire place to ourselves to take portraits.

It was also really nice for Isabelle to take portraits of her and chat with her a bit as they are very similar in age but lives they lead are so drastically different!  After the first two photos below of the two girls together, there are a few portraits created by and courtesy of Isabelle Nazha Photography.

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