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!

Japan Photo Guide Tokyo 001

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!

2016 Cherry Blossom Photography Tour of Japan | Portrait Session in Kyoto and Tokyo

May 28 | Evan | No Comments |

Photo created by and courtesy of Kel Blake Photography

While in the USA, my main business is small boutique portrait photography studio, so while on these photo tours of Japan, I always enjoy working in a portrait session or two if the other photographers are interested. For the 2016 Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan, we not only had a portrait session with a real maiko like in previous trips to Japan, but also had a few opportunities to take portraits while visiting both Kyoto and Tokyo.

In Kyoto, two members of our group decided they wanted to explore Kyoto wearing traditional Japanese clothes. After arranging for them to each rent a kimono, we went off into Kyoto for a portrait session. Kyoto is literally a picture perfect place for portraits, especially during cherry blossom season in Japan.

Once we returned back to Tokyo we also had a portrait session in Tokyo with a model in and around the Yoyogi Park area. It was a lot of fun taking portraits both in Yoyogi Park and also with Omotesando as the backdrop for some city portraiture in Tokyo.

With Tokyo, Hiroshima, Miyajima and Himeji Castle already visited, next up for the 2016 cherry blossom tour was Kyoto, my favorite city in Japan! After Kyoto we would continue our tour of Japan to photography Mt. Fuji and the Fuji Five Lakes, still chasing and photographing the cherry blossoms around Japan! Interested in joining the 2017 cherry blossom tour? Please contact me today to start your trip to Japan during cherry blossom season or any other time you’d like!

2016 Cherry Blossom Photography Tour of Japan | Tokyo

May 13 | Evan | No Comments |

Cherry blossom season in Japan is a beautiful time of year if you are lucky enough for good timing! Besides the cherry blossoms blooming slight different times in different years, after the cherry blossoms bloom, one strong storm can wash off a lot of the cherry blossoms. In 2015 the cherry blossom photo tour of Japan didn’t have the best luck with timing, but the 2016 cherry blossom photography tour of Japan, while going the almost exact same dates of the year, had just about perfect timing everywhere we went! Not only did we have perfect timing with the cherry blossoms, we were lucky enough not to have any strong storms until probably day 7 or so, after we had traveled to Kyoto.

Photo created by and courtesy of Kel Blake Photography

Before Kyoto though, I have a lot to share from the other places we visited in Japan for this group tour of Japan from cherry blossom season! First up, like many escorted trips to Japan, Tokyo! Our group had 2 nights to enjoy the cherry blossoms in Tokyo along with other sights and experiences in Tokyo, including a home cooked meal and cooking lesson in a Japanese chef’s home. The photos above are from our first morning at Chidorigafuchi from a overcast morning in Tokyo. Later that day we made it to Sumida Park and then headed an older part of Tokyo, Yanaka where after enough cherry blossom viewing had a nice lunch with some locals. Here are a few photos of our group in Tokyo for cherry blossoms:

Our last morning in Tokyo, a few of us headed to Aoyama Cemetery for a few cherry blossoms photos before heading down to Hiroshima and Miyajima. During cherry blossom season in Japan, early in the morning is really the only time you can expect to easily get photos without crowds of people.

Next up for the 2016 cherry blossom tour was Hiroshima and Miyajima. We would also travel to Himeji Castle, Kyoto and the Fuji Five Lakes to chase and photograph the cherry blossoms around Japan! Interested in joining the 2017 cherry blossom tour? Please contact me today to start your trip to Japan during cherry blossom season or any other time you’d like!

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!