Of course, when you venture to a faraway land with camera in hand, the first thoughts are to visit the main attractions and get the proverbial “record shots”. You know what I mean, the touristy shots, and Japan is full of them. As I mentioned in Part 1 of the series, the busloads of tourists start arriving by 9.00am so it’s a matter of getting to a popular location early if you want people free photographs.

Here are few of the iconic locations that we visited where we managed to get a half decent shot, many of them you may recognise from travel brochures and the like.

I hope you have enjoyed the 4 part series as much as I have enjoyed putting together a handful of the 3,000 photographs taken during our visit to this fascinating land. We only touched on a few locations, mostly in the major cities, and a visit to the northern regions and more rural locations would create a totally different impression.

One of the attractions for heading to Japan other than to see the cherry blossom in full bloom was to visit the small bars and eateries to photograph the subduedly light mood and atmosphere of the environment.

I wasn’t disappointed! The alleyways were filled with small establishments packed with people, both locals and tourists alike. In the months before the trip, I had images in my head that I just wanted to capture. I knew what they were and what I wanted to achieve long before arriving. I even purchased the lens for the job, a 35mm f1.4 that would perform well in low light and give me the desired shallow depth of field. For the non-photographers reading this, it meant I wanted the subject sharp and the background out of focus but sufficiently recognisable to place the subject into context. I think I achieved that on a few occasions.

The food, well what can I say other than it’s out of this world, or at least the part of the world I’m used to living in. Small morsels of tasty meat and poultry seared over hot coals and dipped into some of the tastiest of sauces I’ve ever come across. One I shall never forget though was the small round tomatoes wrapped in bacon, cooked over coals and served piping hot three to a skewer. The burst of the combination of sweet tomato juices and salty bacon as you bit into them was unbelievable.

When you arrive in Japan the first thing that strikes you is that there are lots of people, and I really mean lots. Most are local residents, but then there are also the busloads of tour groups who arrive at the popular locations in their masses. When faced with the dilemma of photographing interesting scenes in crowded locations the solution is to include the people and make them the subject.

Here are a few shots of people going about their daily routine that were taken in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.