Japan Trip Part I

Japan has been a country that I've always wanted to travel to, so I was pretty stoked when I found out my parents wanted to plan a trip to visit my sister, Avis, who is currently teaching in Kobe, Japan! Our trip was geared more towards the traditional and historic side of Kobe and Kyoto, from elegant temples, to centuries-old neighborhoods. We visited famous areas like Kinkaku-ji, Fushimi-Inari, and Kiyomizu, all possessing impressive structures that have withstood the test of time. Personally, my biggest highlight of the trip was...the food. Yes, the food. Everything we had, from restaurant udon and tofu, to 7-11 and Daiei bentos, were absolutely amazing. Food isn't something I photograph often, but that definitely changed once I saw how photogenic the food presentation was :) Textures was another element that really intrigued me throughout the trip. Whether it was the beautiful wooden grain on temple doors, or vibrant green moss growing on iron fences, there were amazing textures everywhere we went. This also motivated me to capture a bunch of still life scenes, which you will see throughout this post.

It's been a while since I got travel to another country with my family, and I think we all had an awesome time, bonding over figuring out what trains to catch, what places to eat, how much omiyage we wanted to haul home, and figuring out how to beat the tourists to the popular destinations ;)

Learning from previous experiences, I decided to travel very light for this trip, in terms of camera stuff. I only brought a D700, 35mm 1.4, and 58mm 1.4. Some days, I traveled with just one lens, which was a great challenge, in terms of capturing street scenes and exploring composition.

There's a lot of photos I wanted to share, so I decided to split up this trip into two posts hehe.

Avis, this post is dedicated to you...thank you thank you thank you for taking us around and showing us the place you've come to love outside of Hawaii. Super proud of you, and Happy Birthday!!