Japan Photo Guide

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.

Mt. Fuji (or Fuji-san) is Japan’s tallest (3776 meters) and most famous mountain and is perhaps the most symbolic image of Japan. Fuji-san has been popular among artists as long as art has been in Japan. Mt. Fuji is a dormant volcano which has been so since the early 1700s.

On a clear day (which isn’t often) you can see Fuji-san from some places in Tokyo, like Roppongi Hills Tower, or Yokohama. Also while taking the shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka, after about 30 minutes from leaving Tokyo you will get a nice view of Japan’s most sacred mountain.If you want to get a little closer I recommend stopping by Hakone or the Fuji Five Lakes (Fujigoko). Climbing season is during the summer months of July and August. If you want to avoid the crowds you should go on a weekday around the middle of July, when Japanese schools are still in session and before the summer holidays. The photo below was taken from the 5th stage of Mt. Fuji looking away from the summit.

Interested in climbing Mount Fuji? That is one of the things I have on my list of things to do before leaving Japan. To be honest, I know close to nothing about this (other than the peak season is July and August. If you want to climb Mt. Fuji, Japan-Guide.com has a climbing guide to Mt. Fuji, which seems like a good place to start.

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.