Japan Photo Guide

Even though I am about as far away from Japan as possible, I am super excited about the 2009 cherry blossom season! Partly because it looks like I will be able to make it to Washington DC to see the cherry blossoms blooming in 2009! Yay! In any case, to get everyone excited, here is a short video slideshow with some of my favorite cherry blossom photos from my stay in Japan. Make sure you turn up the volume, but put on some headphones if you are at work! Enjoy!

There are two wonderful and exciting things about February in Japan. First is the Sapporo Snow Festival, and the second is the cherry blossom forecast! The forecast has not been released yet, but usually the first one is released in the middle of, or late February. Check back again as I will post information as soon as I find it is available. Until then, check out some cherry blossom photos from years past!

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Edited on February 25th.
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Here is the latest forecast from Tenki.jp! Looks like things will be a little early this year with Tokyo and Kyoto around March 25th.

To start off 2009, and promote my new blog, Evan Pike Photography, Japan Photo Guide is having a contest to give away $2009, $209 in cash (via PayPal) and other prizes! Like last years contest, there are many and simple ways to enter. Here’s the deal:

Prizes:
There will be 3 prizes. Grand Prize is $209 by way of PalPay. 2nd Prize will get two 8×10″ photos of your choice from my gallery and 3rd Prize will get one 5×7″ photo of your choice from my gallery.

Rules/Requirements:
The contest will last until Saturday, March 28th 2009, 11:59pm EST (I will check the time of the comments), unless I do not have at least 200 entries and if that happens I will extend the contest until I get 250 entries (don’t think this will be a problem though). Most importantly….

You have to leave a comment so I know how you entered. No comment = no entries, no exceptions. Also, if you win the Grand Prize, you must have/sign up for a PalPay account (it’s free). PayPal is the only way I can pay the winner.

There is no maximum for number of entries and the winner will be selected using Random.org If you entered my last contest by adding links, you are still eligible for this one for adding the same links, as long as the links are still there AND you leave a comment on this post to let me know.

How to enter:
Get one entry for doing each/any of the following:

• Add the following link to your blogroll: Photography of Evan Pike
• Add the following link to your blogroll: Japan Daily Photo
• Subscribe by email to my feed using the following link: Subscribe to Japan Photo Guide by Email (make sure pop up blocker is off or it may not work)
• Digg, Stumble or use any other social sharing service to share a post from Japan Photo Guide. Up to two entries maximum for this one.

Get three entries for doing each/any of the following:
See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

The first thing you notice about Okinawa is the beautiful ocean. The second will probably be all of the half dog, half lion statues that are everywhere! These things are called “shisa” or in Japanese, シーサー, that come in all shapes and sizes. Seriously, they are everywhere you go and you cannot avoid them! Apparently they make for good souvenirs because anywhere in Okinawa that sells anything, also has some shisa for sale! I was wondering the whole trip exactly what the deal with them was.

If you are in Japan, unless you wanna go skiing or snowboarding, the best place to take vacation in the winter is Okinawa. Okinawa is Japan’s southern most prefecture and is made up of hundreds of islands. When I went, I pretty much stay around Naha, the capital, which is on Okinawa Island. I lived in Miami for four years, so I am no stranger to beautiful beaches and the ocean, but as far as I am concerned, Okinawa is on a totally different sea level (sorry, bad pun). Part of what makes Okinawa so spectacular is that pretty much wherever you are (on the main island at least) as soon as you go up on one of the many hills, you can see the ocean. Pretty much any time you are driving, you will get great views of the sea.

Of course Okinawa also has great snorkeling, scuba diving and seafood. Not to mention it has been heavily influenced by a few different cultures to make for an interesting and diverse atmosphere. Oh and they have this dish called taco rice, which after eating everything imaginable from the ocean during my stay in Japan, was more delicious than it probably really should have been. Even though I probably saw a few too many castles and didn’t go to the beach as much as I would have wanted to, I was really glad that Okinawa was the last place I visited before leaving Japan.
See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

My favorite season is coming back! Even though I love cherry blossom season, in my opinion autumn is the best time to visit and travel around Japan. Below is a chart for the average dates to best observe fall leaves in Japan.

Along with cherry blossom season, fall is a great time to visit Japan. In any country, fall leaves are beautiful and make for great photos and this holds especially true with Japan. Japan’s most famous fall leaf is the Japanese Maple Tree which turns brilliant red in the fall. These red leaves are referred to as “kouyou” (紅葉) in Japanese.

Read more about fall in Japan and check out some of my favorite places to see the autumn foliage after the jump. See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Going back to food, two of my favorite dishes in Japan are shabu shabu and sukiyaki, both of which are kinds of “nabe.” I like to describe this as Japanese fondue, except there isn’t cheese or chocolate (which is a too bad).  Nabe dishes are ones where the ingredients come raw and you cook them in some kind of soup stock at your table (hence the Japanese fondue comparison).  One major difference with this is that the beef (or sometimes pork) comes sliced very thin so the cooking time is just a few seconds, depending on how you like you meat cooked of course. After cooking, usually there is something to dip your food in. For example, for shabu shabu there are two sauces, a ponzu sauce and a sesame sauce and for sukiyaki it is common to dip your beef in raw egg (I am not a fan of this one to be honest). Of the photos below, the one of the left is sukiyaki and the one on the right is shabu shabu.

In addition to being very tasty, eating these nabe dishes are a good and fun experience and a must while visiting Japan, especially if you like beef. You can find places all over Japan, both local shops and chains; however, there are two that I want to recommend (both of which are “all you can eat”)! See more photos and read the rest of this entry »