Japan Photo Guide

Sapporo, located in Japan’s most northern and largest island, Hokkaido, is Japan’s 5th largest city and is a really great place to visit. There is good food, nightlife, modern buildings, old buildings and easy to get around. Sapporo is perhaps most famous for it’s annual snow festival held in February, it’s beer, Sapporo Beer, and it’s ramen (miso butter corn ramen is a MUST try if you go there). Sapporo has everything from a chocolate factory to modern art museums to a thriving nightlife in Susukino. Also Olympic and winter games have been held there. Below on the left is Odori Koen and on the right the Washington Hotel.

If you can handle the cold, or like winter sports, going to Sapporo during the snow festival is a great time to go. The snow festival has amazing sculptures made of, you guessed, snow and ice. If you are more into not freezing, then in the summer months the weather in Sapporo is pretty mild and not as humid as the rest of Japan. Below is the Sapporo Beer Factory and Sapporo TV Tower.

Sapporo is about a 40 minute train ride from Chitose Airport, 3 hours from Hakodate and about 2 from Furano and Biei.

If you are going to Hokkaido and plan to travel I recommend thinking about getting one of the Hokkaido free rail passes (they have different ones for foreign tourists–3 and 5 days–and one that anyone cane use–7 days).

If you plan on only staying in Sapporo, you do not need a car, but if you plan on going to other areas of Hokkaido, it would not be a bad idea to consider renting a car as a lot of places in Hokkaido are best accessed by car.

Harajuku, recently made even more famous by the Gwen Steffani song, “Harajuku Girls,” is the famous young, hip and sometimes gothic, shopping district of Tokyo. Harajuku can easily be accesed by the Yamanote Train Line and is close to Shibuya and Shinjuku, but each place has a different feeling to it. This place is known for style (good and bad depending on who you are asking). As a photographer, the best time to go is on Sundays when Harajuku is most crowded with all types of people but especially the goth society or “lolita” style comes out in full force.

Above is the entrance to the main shopping street across from Harajuku Station. As you can see, this place gets a little crowded. Also Harajuku is within walking distance of the famous, upscale and designer shopping area Omontesando. For more information, check out the Japan-Guide.com.

The Fuji Five Lakes are located at the base of Mount Fuji and weather permitting, offer fabulous views of Mount Fuji. When I went it was really cloudy and I could not see Mount Fuji from the lakes, the area is still nice enough to find other things to take photos of. The photo below is taken from Itchiku Kubota’s Kimono Museum which is close to Kawaguchiko (the biggest of the lakes). Besides having beautiful kimonos the landscape and design of the museum is just amazingly beautiful, especially in the fall.

If you want to climb Mount Fuji, it is not a bad idea to stay here the day before as Fuji Five Lakes (Fujigoko) is a good place to start the climb. Also camping, hiking and fishing are other popular outdoor activities here. If you can, fall or cherry blossom season is the best time to visit the five lakes, but if you want to climb Mount fuji, the climbing season is from June-August.

For more information, please see the Japan-Guide.com.

Hakone is close to Mount Fuji and about 100 km away from Tokyo. Hakone is perhaps most famous for the hot springs but also offers great views of Mount Fuji and outdoor activities such as camping and hiking.

One of my favorite places in Hakone is the Open Air Museum, where the above photo was taken. This outdoor museum displays lots of modern, abstract and interesting artwork in the surrounding grounds with mountains, vallies and the ocean as the backdrops. I highly reccomend checking this place out if you make it to Hakone.
For more information please see the Japan-Guide.com.

Roppongi Hills Tower is a very modern complex and buildings with everything from (upscale) shops to offices to apartments to restaurants to an art museum. Think of it as an upscale, modern city within Tokyo. It is connected to Roppongi Subway Station and is within walking distance of all the nightlife of the vastly different area known as Roppongi.

Roppongi Hills is a must see if you are visiting Tokyo. I recommend going in the afternoon, walking around the outside and then going up to the tower to see the view of Tokyo (and beyond) just before sunset. On a clear day you can even see Mt. Fuji (see the photo below). Also the art museum is on the top floors of the tower. On another side note, the movie theater has a great discount for foreigners and tickets are only 1000 yen which is almost half price for movie tickets in Japan.

Below on the left is a huge sculpture of a spider. This spider is a popular place to meet and wait for people at Roppongi Hills. On the right, one day I went to Roppongi Hills and I just happened to be there at the same time as a festival parade was passing by Roppongi Hills. The shrine they are carrying is called Mitsukoshi. This style of carrying a shrine in a parade like fashion is a very common for festivals throughout Japan.

For more information see the official site of Roppongi Hills.