I’m a weeb.
Okay, there – I said it. I like Japan and many things that it offers. It all just contrasts so much with my standard American life. Also the food is absolutely the best. This absolutely will not become a travel blog, mostly because I do not travel all that much, but Japan is the exception.
Here’s a handful of (unedited) photos I took during the trip to Japan with my buddy. I may have edited ones in the future but I genuinely can’t stand editing with my current workflow. I may talk about it but for now I just want to get it out there. I truly believe photography can tell a story – even if it’s kind of raw unedited photos.
APA hotels are incredibly ubiquitous throughout Japan, and especially Tokyo. They are easy to distinguish because of their incredibly bright orange and white signs spattered throughout the city. APA hotels have a bit of a…reputation so we didn’t actually stay at one during the duration of our trip – but they did make a great spot to get a moody photo at night.
Crane games are exceptionally popular in certain areas. We were staying in Akihabara (Akiba), which is essentially the Mecca for anything gaming, anime, or nerd related in general. Because of all that crane games were absolutely everywhere. I especially was a fan of them due to the ease of getting very nice depth of field effects, which makes them really pop on the backgrounds.
Many many easy and, in my opinion, very pleasing shots with simple, clear subjects. But not all figures are miniature.
On top of that there is a pretty significant number of larger statues of anime characters, Gundam, or…. sea creatures. The Gundam in the first image is actually an incredibly well known statue on the man-made island of Odaiba. While we were there it was actually the last week of the statue – to be replaced with another statue at a later date. Behind the Gundam was actually an incredibly large shopping mall, with hundreds of amazing shops catering to every niche and need you could possibly think of. In fact, large shopping malls with everything you could think of was extremely common – makes even the largest of American malls feel fairly inadequate.
In fact, places being crowded is probably the biggest downside. The above picture is just a random street in the middle of a random ward, but there’s still tons of people walking around, filling the already very small shops, and generally bumping into each other. Crowds don’t bother me particularly but I can imagine it’s a pretty big turn-off for a significant number of people.
But where Tokyo sets itself apart from other cities is night photography.
The number of amazing night shots cannot be understated. Turn the camera into a cooler white balance, open the aperture wide open, and go nuts. It’s very challenging not to take an utterly beautiful shot.
Many of these are my favorite shots ever. I took almost 2500 pictures throughout the trip…any may have bought a much nicer camera in the interim, but I still wish I had taken more.
One other thing that I think may surprise people who haven’t been is the public transit. People have always told me “You don’t need to learn Japanese to go to Japan.” I’ve always disliked this. I feel if you are going to a foreign country you should absolutely make an attempt to learn at least a passable amount of the language in order to get around smoothly and show courtesy. In my experience the English proficiency varied massively – from people who were essentially native to “No no no, no English” over and over. Learning the basics will just make any potential trip so much smoother.
The exception to needing to learn Japanese is the aforementioned public transit – if you need to take the trains around town then Google Maps and English is all you need, you can get from one end of the city to the other in 30 minutes and 400 yen (about $2.50). Honestly if you aren’t jealous of the public transit in Japan after visiting then it means you didn’t take it.
I still have many, many photos I took so I do believe this will be the first of several (as I get to it). As said before Japan is absolutely somewhere to visit for many people, whether the city of the country. If you are respectful of rules and understanding then the Japanese people are some of the most accommodating and kind people I’ve had the pleasure to interact with – really gives southern hospitality a run for its money!
