2015 Fall Photo Tour of Japan | Kiyomizu Temple & Shinnyodo Temple

Feb 17 | Evan | No Comments |

At this point in our tour we had learned colder than normal weather, followed by drought, followed by warmer than normal weather, had split the vast majority of maples into three groups, turned color early, dried up and died early, or turning color late. Our tour of Japan must go on, though it meant now we were hunting for the best trees in each location, sometimes not having so many to choices! Even with the explanation of why the fall leaves weren’t out in full force in Kyoto, we were still able to make some great art and photographs in Kyoto. In this post I’m combining 2 places that are quite different but both are nice to visit in Kyoto in Autumn. First is Kiyomizu Temple and second is Shinnyodo Temple. Kiyomizu Temple is in South Eastern Kyoto in the area called Higashiyama.

Japan Photo Guide Kiyomizu 010

Kiyomizu dera is probably one of, if not the most famous temples in Japan. There are almost always crowds and thus if you are taking photos, I’d highly recommend going early in the morning as it opens at 6am. Hopefully, you will get a nice sunrise (which we didn’t get so much) or fantastic moon setting over Kyoto (which we did)!

Later in the day we would make our way over to Shinnyodo Temple, a much lessor known temple and often passed over by visiting tourists. Not because it isn’t great, but because there are so many other wonderful places to visit and experiences to do in Kyoto. Being slightly overlooked though is part of what makes Shinnyodo Temple great to visit as crowds tend to be much less but there are still some great fall leaves to be found here!

The 2015 Fall Photography Tour of Japan included Tokyo, Kanazawa, Shirakawago, Okayama, Hiroshima, Miyajima and Kyoto! Interesting in joining your own escorted tour of Japan with Japan Photo Guide? Contact us to get the planning of your trip to Japan started or join one of the group tours of Japan!

2015 Fall Photo Tour of Japan | Tofukuji

Feb 16 | Evan | No Comments |

After spending time strolling through and photographing Fushimi Inari Taisha, we headed a little north to Tofukuji, a large temple complex famous for Fall Leaves. If you aren’t great with crowds, you might want to avoid Tofukuji in the Fall though as at some parts it’s just a huge mob in what seems to be limited space, but actually it’s really not that small, just really, really, really, REALLY crowded! Before going into the main complex of Tofukuji, we stopped by one of the gardens along the way, Fundain, certainly the calm before the storm that we were approaching…

After our moments of zen in Fundain, we headed up to check out and take photos of the Autumn leaves at Tofukuji by inching along with the hoards of visitors also excited to see the famed leaves at this temple. As much as I love adding people in my photographs, crowds of people wasn’t exactly the look I was going for.There is a route to follow at Tofukuji, so be focusing up and out from the crowds, you would never know how packed Tofukuji was!

2015 Fall Photo Tour of Japan | Fushimi Inari Kyoto

Feb 15 | Evan | No Comments |

Anyone that has talked to me about visiting Japan before knows that Kyoto is my favorite city to travel to in Japan. I usually follow that up with saying, Kyoto is perhaps my favorite city to visit not only in Japan but in the world. I’m sure there are some great cities out there for me to visit and photograph, I love Kyoto for it’s incredible mix of traditional and modern Japan. Of course like when visiting other parts of Japan, Kyoto is very safe, clean with good options for public transportation. One of my favorite places to visit and photograph is Fushimi Inari Shrine.

Besides the thousands of torii gates and beautiful grounds, Fushimi Inari Shrine is one of the few spectacular places in Kyoto that is open 24 hours, making it great place to visit for golden hour in the morning. Not to mention, anything later int he day will be so packed with tourists that it makes taking photos quite difficult.

The photo just above was created by and courtesy of Mami Yasui who very graciously cropped the image to hide my bald spot!

2016 Cherry Blossom Forecast for Japan!

Feb 13 | Evan | No Comments |

I can’t wait for the 2016 cherry blossom tour of Japan and things are looking good with the current cherry blossom forecast! The first cherry blossom forecast for the 2016 season in Japan has been released by the Japan Weather Association and Tenki.jp. While it’s still early and a lot can change, currently the forecast is for an average blooming year. Average blooming year doesn’t mean average quality of cherry blossoms, but means that currently the cherry blossoms are expected to start blooming around the average opening dates over the past years. JNTO, The Japan National Tourist Organization has a great map and list that shows lot’s of cities and their current forecast for cherry blossoms and average dates. If you can handle Japanese or okay with google translate and clicking around, weathermap.jp has a nice interactive map by clicking on the dates. If you just want the quick version, here are the current forecasted dates for cherry blossoms to start blooming in many cities in Japan with full bloom estimated to be about a week or so after.

~~***Updated February 18th***~~

~~***Updated February 24th***~~

***Updated March 9th*** Most places looking early at this point!

Keep in mind that these dates are for the yoshino variety of cherry blossom trees and there are many different kinds of cherry blossoms that bloom at different times throughout Japan!