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!

Winter Photo Tour of Japan | Snow Monkeys!

May 12 | Evan | No Comments |

Located in Nagano Prefecture, the Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park in Yamanouchi has become a very popular place for tourists visiting Japan to include on their Japan tour itinerary. If you google snow monkey Japan, you will find all sorts of articles and a few videos and then if you go to the images section of google, your heart will possibly melt from all the cute photos of these monkeys trying to stay warm during Winter in Japan!

While the snow monkey park is manmade, the surrounding mountains are the monkeys natural habitat and you can usually position yourself to so it’s not obvious you are in a park. The crowds of people have been increasing though, so sometimes it’s harder to avoid other humans in the photos with monkeys! Although, the other humans sometimes provide some interesting photo opportunities as well, like this guy who thought it was a good idea to get close to the monkey here:

It’s almost a perfect comic strip as the monkey’s reaction went from “What are you looking at?” to “Go away” to laughing to himself over how scared the human was! Besides taking photos here I really enjoyed just observing the monkeys in the Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park…

I saw many characteristics displayed by the monkeys that appeared to be similar to humans, for example, love (grooming, taking care of, hugging and a little more… intimate), curiosity (one baby monkey untied a person’s shoes for example), bullying (one monkey launched a surprise attack on another) and of course, the natural desire we have to get warm when it’s cold. The peak season to visit the monkey park in Jigokudani is February as that’s when Yamanouchi tends to be the coldest and gets the most snow. I went just at the beginning of March and the path still had quite a bit of snow/ice and the snow monkey park had some snow but you can see that it wasn’t covered in snow. The snow monkey park may not be great for everyone visiting Japan, but as it can be done as a day trip from Tokyo, it certainly makes for a nice an unique opportunity to take photos in Japan! Below are a few more photos of the snow monkeys in Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park.

Interested in visiting Japan and the snow monkey park with me? Go ahead and contact me to get your escorted trip to Japan or photography tour of Japan started! Also, Japan Photo Guide is partnering with Magic Is Photo Tours for a 2017 Winter Photography Tour of Japan. At the time of this post, there are only 4 spots left for that trip!

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!

2015 Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan | Maiko Portrait Session

May 07 | 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.

I already shared with you about Kyoto and some of the special experiences we had there, but one other special experience in Kyoto that I saved a post for itself was our portrait session with a maiko in Kyoto. If you have been to Japan Photo Guide before, perhaps you have seen the portrait session with the two maiko from the 2014 cherry blossom tour of Japan, also in Kyoto! If so, you might recognize this maiko as she is in those portraits as well. Can you spot what has changed about her appearance since last yet?

Of course she is a year older but now she has lipstick on both the bottom and top lips, not just a style thing, but as they advance in their training, different things like hair style and make up changes as well! This time we first met at her tea house in Gion Kyoto, had a short tea ceremony and played a game before heading out to Kyoto Botanical Gardens to take portraits of her.

Taking portraits of a real maiko is always a unique and special experience itself, but also, just having sometime to talk with her was very interesting for the group visiting Japan as talking with a maiko is so rare, especially for foreign visitors. Catching a glimpse into the world of geiko (geisha is actually geiko in Kyoto and maiko in Kyoto is a geiko in training) is a special experience that everyone enjoyed, including a couple that was taking their wedding portraits that really wanted to take a portrait with her!

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