2015 Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan | Himeji Castle

Apr 29 | Evan | Comments Off |

Before evening returning from the the 2015 Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan, I received a few inquiries about the 2016 Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan! If you are looking for that information, the details of the 2016 Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan can be found here.

Himeji Castle, located in between Hiroshima and Kyoto, is considered to be one of the top 3 castles in all of Japan and also one of best spots in Japan for viewing cherry blossoms. Himeji Castle just finished a 5 year long restoration and fully reopened to the public at the end of March. Between the newly opened castle, being one of the top castles in Japan and being one of the best spots for cherry blossoms in Japan, Himeji Castle was CROWDED! Don’t get me wrong, most popular places for cherry blossom in Japan are crowded, so we were expecting this, but we were told it was a 2 hour wait to go into the main keep!

Luckily, the cherry blossoms are all around the outside and since I had arranged to get tickets ahead of time, we didn’t have to wait long to enter the Himeji Castle grounds. We had plenty of time to explore the castle grounds and find great spots with cherry blossom and the castle and photos of just Himeji Castle.

While we did see our first blue sky and the sun for a few hours in the afternoon in Himeji, we didn’t have much of a sunset or sunrise the next morning in Himeji. I know of a few good places for spectacular views of Himeji Castle, which would really had been nice had we weather cooperated with our group tour but like most days of this trip, we had mostly cloudy and some rain but went anyway…

Want to see more photos from the 2015 Cherry Blossom Photography Tour of Japan? The group tour also went to Tokyo, Miyajima, Hiroshima, Kyoto and some of us to The Fuji Five Lakes close to Mt. Fuji. Stay tuned for more photos from the escorted tour of Japan!

2015 Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan | Miyajima and Hiroshima

Apr 26 | Evan | Comments Off |

Japan Photo Guide Miyajima

After spending a few days in Tokyo we took our chartered bus from the hotel in Shibuya to Shinagawa Station for the first ride on the bullet train of this tour of Japan. I love riding the shinkansen and find it relaxing and much less stressful than flying or taking a car. The one way trip from Tokyo to Miyajima takes over 5 hours and included bus, train and ferry! Especially since it was raining the entire time our group was transferring, the trip worked out fine and was well worth the time spent in transit through Japan!

Like with Tokyo, cherry blossoms blooming earlier than normal, hard rain and strong winds limited cherry blossoms still intact in Miyajima and Hiroshima, but it’s still a beautiful place…. even if we did have mostly cloudy, rainy and misty weather for our stay in Miyajima!

Part of the group did take some time during the day to visit nearby Hiroshima and Peace Park. The museum is under renovation, but about half of it was open. After that we made sure to eat some Hiroshima Okonomiyaki, which I love love love!

All the photos below are courtesy of and created by 2015 Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan participant, Gavin Everson:

Want to see more photos from the 2015 Cherry Blossom Photography Tour of Japan? The group tour also went to Tokyo, Himeji Castle, Kyoto and some of us to The Fuji Five Lakes close to Mt. Fuji. Stay tuned for more photos from the escorted tour of Japan!

2015 Cherry Blossom Group Tour of Japan | Tokyo

Apr 25 | Evan | No Comments |

Like every trip to Japan, the 2015 Cherry Blossom Tour went by too fast! Even though the weather was not great for traveling around Japan (I think in 2 weeks I saw the sun on 3 days at best and somebody forgot to tell Japan that it was Spring and not still Winter)…. and in some cities the cherry blossoms bloomed too early for us to catch the peak bloom of the sakura, we had a great time, made new friends, ate delicious (and too much) Japanese food, experienced the culture and we were able to make some nice photos!

This guided tour of Japan started out in Tokyo, with the tour participants flying into Japan from 4 different countries on 3 different days. Tokyo was the perfect place to meet and wait while the entire group was getting settled in Japan. I arrived in Tokyo first, just as the cherry blossoms had hit their peak, only to see the next two days bring rain and extreme winds which are both devastating to the fragile cherry blossoms…sigh… But that didn’t stop us having a portrait session in Shinjuku Gyoen with Manami in her kimono! It was a great portrait session in Tokyo, but she was too popular with everyone else in the park as well! She was great about it and so kind to let every take her photo!

Due to cherry blossoms blooming a few days earlier than the average and the weather not cooperating, we didn’t get too many cherry blossom photos in Tokyo, but still managed to get some photos close to peak around Tokyo! Also, as the sakura petals are falling off, the cherry blossom petals can make for some quite beautiful photos as well!

The first night we were all together, I had arranged with a friend of mine in Tokyo to introduce some Japanese families to our group! We had dinner together in a (really dark-sorry photo is so as well) restaurant in Shibuya and it was a great cultural exchange for our group visiting Japan and for the Japanese friends to meet travelers. If you are visiting Tokyo and want to make some Japanese friends over a meal, here is the facebook page my friend started for cultural exchange in Tokyo.

Other highlights of our days in Tokyo were a cooking lesson in a Japanese home and visiting an early morning sumo practice! All really great experiences in Tokyo for some nice memories!

Photo by Gavin Everson

Want to see more photos from the 2015 Cherry Blossom Photography Tour of Japan? The group tour also went to Miyajima, Hiroshima, Himeji, Kyoto and some of us to The Fuji Five Lakes close to Mt. Fuji. Stay tuned for more photos from the escorted tour of Japan!

Traveling around Kyushu | Tanada Rice Terraces

Aug 02 | Evan | No Comments |

Tanada, or in English, rice terraces, are rice fields built into hillsides and mountains. With the right timing and weather, they can provide excellent backgrounds for landscapes in Japan or other countries that have time. Accessing the best rice terraces isn’t always easy and finding information in English is rare, so I’ve become really interested in creating a tour to focus on some beautiful rice terraces in Kyushu. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but this summer I visited a couple areas of Kyushu including Nagasaki, Sasebo and Karatsu, to scout out the area. I knew my timing wouldn’t be good for photos as I went during the rainy season for Kyushu and also the rice had already started to grow tall in most parts of the rice terraces. Most of my favorite photos of rice terraces are when the season first starts and you can only see water in the rice fields. This makes for some magnificent imagery, especially when you get a great sunset.

Even though this trip to Kyushu was mainly to scout the area and during the rainy season, I decided to practice some HDR (high dynamic range) photography. The first time I really tried this was when I was in Japan during cherry blossom season on another tour of Japan. You haven’t seen any of those photos because they didn’t come out very well! This time, while I’m not thrilled with the results, they are at least good enough to share, considering it’s only my second attempt! Most of these are HDR but there are a few iPhone panoramic photos mixed in as well as a few HDR of other random places I found along the way in Kyushu.

Interested in coming along or in more information about the Japan Photo Tanada Tour? Contact me and I can fill you in!