I. Introduction

Japan is a massive country, and Tokyo, with a population of 37 million and a few of the busiest public transport stations in the world, might seem unmanageable to first-time travellers. With such a vast geography and long history, it is not surprising that there is a lot to see, do, and experience in this captivating country.

In this article, I will share my experience as a first-time traveller to Japan so that amateur enthusiast photographers such as myself can make the most of this unique experience. My itinerary was as follows:

• When: Last 3 weeks of October 2024
• Where: Tokyo (with a day trip to Kawagoe and Kamakura), Nikko, and Kyoto
• Purpose: Sightseeing and experiencing the local culture (food, festivals, museums…), photography.

There are plenty of helpful videos and articles online that painstakingly explain to laypeople how to organize a trip to Japan, from accommodation to travel, food, payments, and itineraries. We will not repeat any of this information here but will primarily focus on tips and tricks that are relevant (and hopefully valuable) to photographers. Let’s start with some obvious questions.

II. How Much Time Is Enough to See Japan?

Japan has many exciting places where nature, landscape, wildlife, architecture, and travel photographers can have a fantastic time. Regardless of how much time you allocate to such a trip, there will always be more temples, museums, natural landscapes and cultural activities to photograph.

The biggest mistake that anyone can make is to squeeze in as many activities and attractions as possible in a tight schedule. To organize a comfortable and rewarding trip, do as much research as you can. Do not be afraid to spoil the trip with too much research. Find out before you travel:

• What places to see (locations…)
• What is the best way to access them (trains, buses, subways…)
• What time do they open and close (most museums and parks will close on Mondays, for example)
• Whether they require a reservation
• Do they have an entrance fee
• Whether photography is allowed (in case that’s your only reason for visiting the place).

The tourist pattern that most visitors follow when preparing for a trip to Japan is to take the “Tokyo (3-5 days), Kyoto (2-3 days), and Osaka (1-2 days)” route. I believe the best way to organize your itinerary should be based on how long you will spend there. Here are some suggestions.

• If you have less than a week, spend it around Tokyo, Nikko, and Kamakura.
• For trips up to two weeks, go to Tokyo and Kamakura and choose between Kyoto and Nikko.
• For trips spanning three weeks, visit Tokyo, Nikko, Kamakura, Kawagoe, Kyoto and Osaka.

Remember, these suggestions are designed to maximize your photography opportunities as a first-time traveller and may not be suitable for every taste.

III. Is Autumn a Great Time to Travel to Japan?

Autumn is supposed to be the second busiest time of year in Japan, where people from around the world flock to see the autumn maple leaves turn into their red, yellow, and brown hues.

Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to see any autumn colours in October 2024. In fact, even by the last week of October, all leaves in Tokyo and Kyoto were still green. I am not sure if this season is different than other years, but if you are keen to photograph pagodas surrounded by warm colours, you might want to set your trip for November. As autumn is a popular theme for visitors to Japan, it might be possible that some online website tells you in real-time what stage autumn is currently in. It might be worth checking to avoid any disappointment.

Another two reasons to push your trip a bit further into November are that you will probably encounter fewer crowds and that the weather will be cooler, making walking long distances (which you will probably do) more comfortable.

IV. Which Cities to Visit?

Here is a breakdown of the cities I visited in 2024 and my impression of them.

D. Kawagoe

Kawagoe is another small town in the northwest of Tokyo. Its main attractions are a long street from the Edo period with wooden inns and tea houses and a traditional shrine and float parade festival. The festival is an “Important Intangible Cultural Property of Japan” and is classified as a UNESCO Cultural Heritage.

E. Kyoto

While not as crowded as Tokyo, Kyoto is still a large city with a population of 1.38 million and an insanely busy Kyoto Station. Kyoto is considered the cultural capital of Japan and is a popular tourist destination. Kyoto has numerous Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, palaces and gardens, some of which have been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

To me, the fascinating experience in Kyoto was the Jidai Matsuri (Festival of the Ages), a stirring two-kilometre-long procession of volunteers dressed as samurai, daimyos, attendants, priests and monks, entertainers, and princes and princesses from the Meiji, Edo, Kamakura, Muromachi, Fujiwara, Heian and Enryaku periods.

D. Mt Takao

Mt Takao is another popular hiking spot among tourists and locals. The climb to the summit is not especially difficult if you use the easiest of the six different hiking trails available. Signage, resting areas, vending machines, toilets, and restaurants are scattered across the trail for the hiker’s convenience. On your way to the summit, the highlights of the trip will be the monkey park, a temple complex and the summit observation deck.

V. What Is the Weather Like in Autumn?

The temperature during my October 2024 visit to Japan ranged between 15 and 29 degrees, mostly between 17 and 25 degrees, with 80% humidity on many days. There was very little rain during the three weeks I stayed there. Coming from a relatively cold city (Melbourne, Australia), I found the weather slightly on the hot side.

It is highly recommended that you wear comfortable walking shoes, cotton clothes, a windbreaker, a broad-rim hat, and some sunscreen. You want to make your trips with a (possibly) weighty camera bag as comfortable as possible. If you need warmer clothes, there is a UNIQLO store in almost every corner (not literally, but they are numerous and easy to find).

VI. What Camera Gear to Pack?

This will obviously depend on the photography genre you are interested in. Still, if you want to be prepared for every situation, you will probably need to cover the whole range of focal lengths from wide to telephoto.

A. Camera

Since I only own one camera, I did not have much choice. However, if you own multiple cameras, this choice will then boil down to how much you want to carry vs. the selection of suitable lenses that you have for each. I own a Nikon D850 (probably the best DSLR that Nikon ever made). While not the lightest of cameras, it will take the best images, which is a priority for me.

One of the great features of the D850 (and indeed all DSLRs in general) is its battery life. Therefore, I only carried one battery (no spare) and never ran into that sort of issue.

B. Travel Lenses

To cover the needs of my photography genres (travel and cultural photography in this case), I packed the following lenses:

• Wide zoom: AF-S Nikkor 18-35mm F/3.5-4.5G ED
• Telephoto zoom: AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm F/4G ED
• Prime: AF Nikkor 60mm F/2.8 D

All three lenses are lightweight and sharp and render beautiful images.

The only challenge I had was with the wide-angle zoom lens in the following three areas:

• While the lens itself produces excellent images, the wide-angle field of view included much more distracting elements than I could clean in post-processing.
• The distortion at its widest focal lengths (18-24mm) was also very noticeable and hard to fix in post-processing, as you would probably already know.
• Flare control in high-contrast scenes (such as between a dark wooden temple wall and a cloudy sky) was poorer than I had hoped.

I might instead pack a 24-70mm or a 24-120mm for the next trip.

C. SD Cards

The D850 boasts an average file size of 50 MB, which is relatively huge even by today’s standards. Even with a combined SD storage capacity of 320GB, I found myself having to purchase a 526GB card around 2/3 of my trip. Regarding SD cards and storage, I realized the following:

• SD cards are very costly in Japan (2-3 times the price outside). Make sure you have enough storage before you land.
• If you have to purchase SD cards in Japan, Bic Camera is a good place with plenty of options. You can buy a SanDisk 526 MB at a decent price (around $100), but at that price point, it will be a slow-speed card. This means that during continuous shooting, the camera’s buffer will be doing all the heavy lifting, and it will take a long time for the card-writing operation to catch up. Be sure to save all the high-speed cards that you have for events, parades, or wildlife where you expect to use high burst rates.
• The SanDisk Extreme PLUS’s 150MB/s write speeds were good enough for the fast-action shooting I had to do. Anything above that for stills might be a waste of money.

D. Tripod

I own a SmallRig tabletop tripod. It is beautiful, very sturdy, has fantastic build quality, and, most importantly, is very compact and lightweight. Even though the D850 has no IBIS (in-body stabilisation) and the Nikkor 18-35mm does not have Vibration Reduction (VR), I would not have dreamt of hauling a full tripod with me. The SmallRig tabletop tripod works just fine and fits neatly in almost any camera bag.

I used the tripod at Sensō-ji to take some night images of the temple, pagoda, and Kaminarimon gate, without which I would have been constrained to high ISO or large aperture settings. I should have used the tripod also at Shinjuku and Akihabara, but sadly, I did not. All in all, the tabletop tripod is a highly recommended addition, especially given its weight and size.

E. Camera Bag

I packed my camera gear in a 15-litre PeakDesign V2 bag. It’s spacious enough and has the correct number of pockets and compartments. Its waterproof shell performed as expected, and dust had a hard time sticking to it, which was also excellent.

While comfortable to carry for extended periods, I did find access to the camera, documents, and cash comparatively trickier than, for example, a messenger bag. I ended up having to buy a small (but very cheap) Manfrotto pouch from Bic Camera to carry my mobile, money, tickets, trash (there are no garbage bins in Japan, so be prepared to carry your trash home), and facewash.

I looked at the PeakDesign Tech Pouch and Wash Pouch designs. Still, I did not see myself carrying them around, especially since there is no easy way (at least to my knowledge) to attach them to the PeakDesign bag in a comfortable and non-clumsy way.

A small accessible pouch, wallet, or bag would be indispensable for carrying your mobile, documents, cash, and toiletries without having to find somewhere to sit, open the backpack, and search for these items, which you will frequently use throughout the day.

VII. Overtourism in Japan: How to Avoid the Crowds?

A. Rising Early

One of the best ways to beat the crowds is to rise as early as possible, get your breakfast (preferably at the hotel), and arrive onsite as soon as you can. You will benefit from better light and fewer crowds. However, since this recipe is known to everyone, it comes down to who is willing to implement it.

Breakfast at the hotel will undoubtedly be more expensive than outside, but it’s far more convenient and will give you a significant lead time. Most hotels offer breakfast at 6 or 7 AM, while convenience stores such as 7-Eleven are open at 7 AM.

The downside to this option is that by the early afternoon (2-3 PM), exhaustion will set in, and you start to feel the urge to call it a day. I say it’s a downside because between 3 (but mostly 4) and 5 PM, the crowds will also be the fewest, and the light will be the best. In autumn, the sun sets at about 5 PM, and most attractions will be closing at that time.

B. Using Telephoto Lenses

When shooting urban or architectural scenes, a large field of view will undoubtedly include elements that make your photos less attractive. These include vehicles, crowds, barriers, signposts, and many other less appealing artifacts. Many of these can be removed with Generative AI tools in post-processing. Still, you really want to have the cleanest possible composition in-camera.

The finest way to have a clean composition is to use a telephoto zoom lens. Long focal lengths allow you to frame your images from different angles and distances, focusing only on a narrow field of view or rising above the crowds. Another advantage of using a telephoto lens for landscape, architectural, or urban scenes is that you will get unique and original scenes that probably few people have seen before.

C. Long Exposures

A third option to eliminate crowds from your pictures would be to use long exposures. However, this means longer hours onsite and potentially having to carry bulkier tripods and neutral density filters. At night, this would be ideal as lines of red or white light across your images might give it a better aesthetic.

In fact, I highly recommend that you take long exposures (or use a telephoto lens) at night in areas like Shibuya, Shinjuku, or Akihabara.

D. The Off-The-Beaten-Path Option

Many YouTube travel photographers profess to know secret places in Japan that no one else knows about. That might be true in large cities such as Tokyo or Kyoto. However, keep in mind that these places will probably be less attractive or more challenging to access than the primary sites of which everybody is aware.

In Kyoto, the Monoyama Castle was an absolute gem, especially since I missed the Imperial Palace and Nijo Castle in Tokyo, and Osaka was not on my itinerary.

My recommendation is to ignore those attractions where photo opportunities are rare. If you absolutely wish to see them, you can do so without expecting to return with excellent photos and, therefore, not spend much time on site waiting for the crowds to clear. An example of such a place is the Gion district in Kyoto, especially around the famous Hōkan-ji pagoda that appears in almost every picture of the place.

Kamakura, especially the area between the Kita-Kamakura station and the Hachimangu Shrine, is an excellent example of an off-the-beaten-path place. It has numerous exquisite temples and shrines, plenty of photo opportunities, and very few crowds. However, keep in mind that it’s not possible to see this region and the Great Buddha or Hasadera Temple on the same day.

VIII. What Was Missed

A. Autumn Colours

One of the main reasons for visiting Japan in October is to see the maple forests display their warm hues. However, as I mentioned above, that was missed entirely. I am not sure whether I could have known this before or if it was just bad luck. While still a loss, this did not make the trip significantly less enjoyable.

B. Having a Laptop

Not having a laptop on me meant two things. First, I could not review my raw images on a decent-sized screen. Had I been able to do so, I would have paid a bit more attention to challenging lighting conditions. My impression was that such images (for example, high-contrast scenes of dark wooden temples on a cloudy day) could be restored in post-processing, which turned out to be incorrect. The second issue was that I didn’t have a laptop with me, so I couldn’t empty an SD card after it got full.

I do not regret carrying a laptop with me as it would have significantly increased the weight of my backpack, but it is something worth noting.

C. Viewing Mt Fuji

While a massive landmark, Mt. Fuji is notoriously hard to see because clouds and fog surround it two-thirds of the year. Apparently, the best time to view Mt. Fuji is between January and March.

I was not able to see Mt. Fuji on my Tokyo-Kyoto roundtrip on the Shinkansen or later when I took a special “Mt. Fuji” tour. I say special because the tour was designed to bring you to all those iconic and picturesque spots (Arakurayama Sengen Park, Fujiyoshida “Honmachi Street”, Neba, the Gentle Village of West Lake, Oshino Hakkai) where you can see Mt Fuji in the background.

If you want to take memorable pictures with Mt. Fuji majestically sitting in the background and a thatched-roof house or pagoda in the foreground, make sure you plan a day trip with absolutely clear skies.

IX. Bonus Topic: Matsuri or Cultural Festivals

Of all the highlights of a traditional Japanese trip, the Matsuri (or Japanese cultural festive events) were the pinnacle of photo opportunities in the cultural photography genre. Surprisingly, very few people talk about them.

During traditional festivals, Japanese men, women, and children parade majestically through city streets in traditional costumes (kimonos, samurai armour, etc.). In most cases, shrines are also carried by groups of men or on wheels.

While the parades and festivals are extremely popular, if you arrive early enough, you will easily find suitable locations to set your camera or tripod.

X. Conclusion

First-time visitors to Japan will be inundated with online material covering essential tips and tricks for a surprise-free trip. Most (if not all) of these have very little advice for photographers. The worst part for me was that some had advice that I found pretty unhelpful, especially those with the catchiest titles offering recommendations on what you can and can’t do, should or shouldn’t do. Most of whatever you should or shouldn’t do is just plain common sense that any person would know.

I hope the reader will find the ideas we shared valuable.

XI. References

There are many tourist information websites, but the ones that I repeatedly referred to were:

• https://www.japan-guide.com
• https://www.japan.travel/en

Their information is concise, accurate, and available in many languages. Be sure to check the Matsuri or other events in the area and the time you are visiting.

Another brilliant source of information is tourist information centres, which are located in most cities and large towns. Be sure to visit one as soon as you arrive. They will have English-speaking guides, brochures, and maps and will inform you of any special events happening during your stay.