Japan Photo Guide

The Itchiku Kubota Kimono Museum is within walking distance of Kawaguchiko of Fuji Five Lakes (fujigoko) and is really a can’t miss place if you are in the area. Itchiku Kubota devoted almost his entire life to developing his own style of making beautiful kimonos and his hard work and devotion can be seen in his works of art. Besides the beautiful kimonos, some of which have designs that carry over between 4 or 5 different kimonos, the museum itself and landscape on the museum grounds are really a site to see.

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Before my friends buy a new camera, many of them ask me “How many megapixels do I really need to make nice prints?” My answer has always been something along the lines of, “Unless you are making prints lager than 8 x 10 inches, 4MP or 5MP should do.” Which is more or less true.

Recently, I came across Design215′s megapixel comparison and maximum print size chart that talks about how big you can print your photos depending on how many megapixels your camera is. First, I am going to say it is a nice chart and is helpful; however, having said that, unless you are publishing a photography book I have to be honest and tell you that the chart isn’t exactly right. I mean, the chart stresses it is true if you want “true photo quality,” but who can really tell between “true photo quality” and slightly below that (whatever that is)?

For example, the above link says that using a 6MP camera that gives you pixel resolution of 3008 x 2000 and a maximum print size of 10.02 x 6.67 inches, but using a simple function in Photoshop (I used CS2 but pretty much any version is ok), you can easily go beyond that while loosing minimal quality. The trick is increasing the image size by 110% (multiple times). To do this just go to the “Image” menu, select “Image Size” and then configure the window so it looks like this one below:

The changes you will need to make are first checking “Constrain Proportions” and “Resample Image: Bicubic.” Then change the drop down box under “Pixel Dimensions” from “pixels” to “percent.” Finally type in “110%” in the width (and height of course) and then press “OK.” That is it! Depending on the photo you can repeat this 5-7 times before you start to notice any real loss of image quality. I have printed images that started at 10.02 x 6.67 inches and using this trick and got beautiful prints as large as 19.5 x 13 inches. I mean sure, if you do it 7 times and look at it real closely you can tell a little, but a print that is 19.5 x 13 inches (7 times) is not printed to be looked at closely. I printed the same print at 16.1 x 10.7 (5 times) inches and it was almost identical to the original sized print at close range. If you want, you can easily record an action in Photoshop to repeat these steps for you.

Of course, results will vary depending on the quality of the camera (if you have a 2 MP don’t expect to get great prints at any size really), the quality of your printer and the colors in your photograph (if you have a lot of blue in your photograph or a night photograph results will vary because most of the “noise” in digital photography is in the blue channel).

So in conclusion to the question, “How big can I print my digital photographs?” you can print them 110% (5-7 times) the original size!

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Asakusa, about one mile from Ueno in Tokyo, is most famous for the Buddhist temple Sensoji, inluding a huge lantern at the entrance (photo below), five story pagoda and a traditional Nakamise shopping arcade. At the shopping arcade you can find lots of souvenirs from fake swords and katanas to wall scrolls to funny tshirts (for example changing “Puma” to “Kuma,” which is bear in Japanese, along with a logo change) to photos of pop idols. You can also take a rickshaw ride and occasionally see geisha or maiko.

If you are spending time in Tokyo, Asakusa is worth checking out and a lot of interesting photos can be made here. Also there are a lot of festivals in Asakusa throughout the year, these festivals, or “matsuri” in Japanese, always make for good photographs. Here is some information with short descriptions of the festivals in Asakusa and here is another list with the 2007 dates of festivals in Asakusa. Note that some of the dates may change from year to year. Perhaps one of the more interesting festivals is the annual Samba Festival, which takes place in late August. It is interesting because it is obviously very different from the usual traditional festival in Japan. Here is more information on the history of the samba festival in Asakusa. Below is a photo of the shopping arcade.

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Fushimi Inari Shrine is a shrine dedicated to Inari, the Shinto Rice God. There are thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari throughout Japan, but Fushimi Inari, about a 5 minute train ride from Kyoto Station, is the most famous. The main reason why it is so famous is the thousands of tori gates that line the path up to the main shrine. It takes about two hours to walk the entire path and of course longer if you are stopping to take photographs. The torii gates are actually built for those that make a donation.

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For general information about geisha and maiko continue reading below. If you want to know the best place to see geisha or maiko check out my other post.

Geisha, which literally means “doer of art,” today is a Japanese female entertainer whose profession includes music, dancing, communication and entertainment. There is a common misconception that geisha are prostitutes, this is not true. Maiko refers to a geisha in training. Geisha perhaps the most iconic symbol of Japan and if you are lucky enough to see one, they make for wonderful photographs; however, they are not so common anymore and Kyoto is pretty much the only place you can still see geisha or maiko in Japan; however, occasionally you can see some in Tokyo in places like Asakusa, Shimbashi and Kagurazaka. Here is a somewhat informative site about Geisha in Asakusa.

Geisha originated as skilled professional entertainers; originally most were male. Geisha used their skills in traditional Japanese arts, music, dance, and storytelling. As the artistic skills of high-ranking courtesans declined, the skills of the geisha, who were both male and female, became more in demand. Male geisha (sometimes known as hōkan) gradually began to decline, and by 1800 female geisha (originally known as onna geisha, literally “woman geisha”) outnumbered them by three to one, and the term “geisha” came to be understood as referring to skilled female entertainers, as it does today.

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This may seem obvious but I see it many times with travel snap shots…especially when I ask some stranger to take a photo of me at (insert famous place here). Pay attention to what is in your frame and don’t crop off half of somebody’s body, or somebody’s feet. Of course there are sometimes when you may want to do this because there is no other way to make the photograph work, but a lot of times body parts are cropped out of the frame for no other reason other than laziness. Take a look at the photos below. Both times there is plenty of space at the top of the frame so my feet could have easily not been cut off had the photographer paid attention.

My advice to you is… See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Yamadera is one of the more popular tourist spots in the Tohoku Region of Japan. Yamadera is located on the Senzan Line about 15 minutes from Yamagata and is about one hour from Sendai. You only need about 2 or 3 hours to see all of Yamadera so if you have more time and like hiking, I suggest getting off one stop before at Omoshiroyama Kogen and walk from there.

Yamadera is built into the mountains and offers great views. To get to the top takes about 45 minutes from the entrance. A common thing to do in, as seen in the photo on the right, is to put some money into the bark of trees at temples and then make a wish. See more photos and read the rest of this entry »