Japan Photo Guide

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.

Yokohama is about 30-45 minutes by train from Tokyo making it a nice day trip from Tokyo. Yokohama has the largest Chinatown in Japan and is also one of the largest in the world. Plenty of good photo opps. and even more good food.

Yokohama’s downtown/bay skyline is still being developed and looking better and better. The skyline includes the tallest building in Japan, Landmark Tower (the tallest one in the photo below). The downtown area is known as Minato Mirai which literately means “Harbor of the Future.” This is a great spot for night photography or interesting building shots.

If you are looking to get away from the urban feel of Tokyo/Yokohama, Sankeien is a really beautiful garden you should go to.

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

To me, at first, Osaka felt like a smaller, more confusing to navite Tokyo; however, after going there a couple times I have more of an appreciation for it. To be honest though, if you have a limited amount of time in Japan and have been to Tokyo, there is no REAL reason why you NEED to go to Osaka. Most of the photographs you can make there you can make in any big city. Osaka is nice, but Kyoto (just about 45 minutes by train) is much nicer (from a photographer’s perspective).

Tokyo has pretty much everything you can imagine, including beautiful temples, shrines, museums, gardens, parks, sky scrappers, and much more. For a city as dense and urban as Tokyo there is a fair amount of nature and parks, such as Ueno Park and Yoyogi Park. There is so much to see and do and even if you live there for a year you will not be able to see and do it all.

Here is a short list of places you shouldn’t miss (in no order):

• Roppongi Hills–modern shopping and business district, the tower has a great 360 degree view and art musem at the top. I reccomend going just before sunset.
• Yoyogi and Ueno Park–Both really nice parks on opposite sides of Tokyo.
• Harajuku on a Sunday–This is when and where all the goth and cosplay people gather.
• Shinjuku and Shibuya–Two of the very urban areas of Tokyo. Great for neon lights, buildings, and people photographs.
• Ginza–This is the expensive shopping district
• Asakusa–This is where the famous big latern is you have seen in photographs.
• Akihabara–Electric Town but is kind of turning into Anime/Cosplay Town.
• Tsukiji–The largest fish markets in the world, go early and don’t dress up!

The Kantō region (Japanese: 関東地方, Kantō-chihō) is a geographical area of Honshū, the largest island in Japan. The region encompasses seven prefectures around Tokyo: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Its boundaries are roughly the same as those of the Kantō plain. The plain itself, however, only makes up slightly more than 40 percent of the region. The rest consists of the hills and mountains that border it except on the seaward side.

The Kantō region is the most densely populated are of Japan with cities like Tokyo and Yokohama, but also has some nice nature with places like Kamakura and Nikko.

For more information please see wikipedia or The Japan-Guide.com.