Japan

day one

Ohayo my friends and welcome to our first day in Japan. I’m travelling with one of my best friends, Géraldine. If you follow my blog or Instagram, you would’ve seen a couple of photos she’s in. This is just a small video of our arrival, train trip to Kyoto and afternoon visit of the city.

Because of the language barrier, I thought we were going to have problems getting around. I couldn’t have been more wrong. From the moment you land to the time you leave the airport, you are guided and helped. We exchanged our JR Passes with no difficulty and they even reserved seats for the Narita Express train to Tokyo and also for our bullet train (Shinkansen) onward to Kyoto. I highly recommend the JR Pass if your trip to Japan involves a lot of train travels between cities. We bought the 14 day pass for our 10 day trip and calculated we saved between 40-50% on tickets. It’s even valid on some local trains, ferries and buses. 

Not only did we get to see Mount Fuji from the plan on our approach to Narita Airport but also from the Shinkansen to Kyoto. We were pleasantly surprise on our first day in. Another surprise was how delicious the food on the Shinkansen was. My best mate, Marcin, told me to try it out if we ever got the chance to. Not all Shinkansen have the food carts onboard but this one did and it was lunchtime. The bento boxes were fresh and oh so delicious. They even sell beer. What more can a man ask for? 

I was amazed at how huge Kyoto Station was. The number of tracks, the boutiques, cafes, restaurants… didn’t think it was so big nor that Kyoto was such a large city either. As soon as you walk out of the station, you see Kyoto Tower. I was looking forward to get up there.

We made our way through little alleyways to get to our hotel, the Karasuma Rokujo Hotel. We did have the help of an extremely nice lady, who went out of her way to walk us to the front door of the hotel. She was actually heading in the opposite direction. We were a little bothered but greatly appreciated her act of kindness. We found the hotel very well placed in Kyoto. Only a ten minute walk from Kyoto Station and Kyoto Tower. And not even five minutes from the grand Higashi Honganji Temple. Yet located in a very quiet area. We were very pleased with the Karasuma Rokujo Hotel.

We literally dropped our baggages and headed back out. We visited the wonderful Higashi Honganji Temple. I thought I was amazed at the entrance to the temple but when I saw the interiors of the founder’s and Amida Halls, I was literally in awe. These halls are stunning from the ground up. The structures, the tatamis, the decorations, the amount of gold… the beauty and wonder of it all really struck me. Unfortunately, we were not permitted to photograph nor film the interior of the halls but you can see some photos on their website.

Our next stop was Kyoto Tower to checkout the view for potential photos at blue hour. Unfortunately, as we approached the tower, police arrived and stopped everyone from entering. The policewoman that stopped us, later approached us with a translation on her phone saying there was a bomb scare and to move away of the area. So we went for a walk around Kyoto. Saw the torii (gateway) of the Fushimi Inari Taisha Otabisho and a couple of Geisha or Maiko, or just a couple of women dressed in Kimonos, I don’t know. We did head back to the tower in hopes it was all over but it got a little more serious. The police had moved across the road from the tower and men in black were now positioned at all entrances. We ended up taking photos from the Kyoto Station side and was pleasantly surprised by a small water, light and music display.

After blue hour we looked around little for a place to eat and stopped at Saikatei restaurant. We ordered sashimi, dumplings and a few other things, and a couple of Japanese beers. Service was quick, food was delicious and quite cheap for the quality of the food and service.

Well that’s it my friends. Thank you for joining me on our first day in Japan and I hope you will join me for day 2. In the meantime, head over to my website or Instagram to see photos of the trip. Oyasuminasai.

MUSIC : Zen Garden from Adrikm (YouTube)

TOKYO, JAPAN

First of all, I’ld like to apologies for the lack of posts. I thought I was going to be able to post a photo a day but I quickly realised it wasn’t going to be possible. With early mornings, late nights, days full with travel and visits, the only time I had was on the long train rides between cities but I used that to catch up on some sleep. I didn’t think our days were going to be so long and full. Anyway…

The second train we caught on our first day in Japan was a bullet train to Kyoto from Shinagawa Station. Two high speed trains past our platform before ours arrived. The first one took us by surprise with a gust of wind pushing us off balance. I captured the second train with a slow shutter to show motion but fast enough to freeze the people waiting on the platform. They weren’t moving much. We don’t have trains in New Caledonia so this is a photo I’ve been waiting to capture for a while. Glad I got the Japanese characters on the board too.

All station notices are in Japanese and English so it’s was fairly easy to get around if you understand English. You just need to take your time to find the right signs. We also used two apps to get around by trains, Google Maps and Hyperdia. The latter is free to use for two (2) weeks then you need to pay for a month or a yearly subscription. The free offer was perfect for us. Oh and I highly recommend getting the JR Pass if you intend on traveling around Japan in high speed trains and/or a rechargeable IC Card for inner city trains. We didn’t use the IC Card as our JR Pass could be used on the inner city trains we used. You need to buy the JR Pass in advance though, before you head to Japan. You’ll received a ticket that you’ll exchange for the actual pass once in Japan. The airport is probably the easiest place to do that. It’s a little more difficult to find a place outside the airport. By our calculations, we saved around 40% by purchasing the pass. Up to you to do your research.

So I’m back home now but I’ve got a lot of photos of Japan I’d like to share with you. See you on the next post. Oyasuminasai.

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1/15th second @ ƒ/11, ISO 400, 28 mm

A view of the Southern Cross train station from the Bourke Street  bridge entrance. I had taken a panorama from a different angle just before but it wasn’t centred so I asked the controller at the entrance if he could let me in passed the the gate. I told him where I wanted to go and that it was going to take ten minutes max. He was kind enough to let me in and do my thing and even asked, as I thanked him on the way out, if I got the shot I wanted. Nice bloke. 

This panorama is made of 13 hand-held shots. I bumped the ISO quite high to compensate for the lack of light and made sure I had image stabilisation activated on the lens before I steadied myself as much as possible before taking the shots. The outcome is… OK. Always carry your tripod with you.

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13 exposures at 1/20 sec @ ƒ/8, 18 mm, ISO 1600