10 Days in Japan, A Lost in Translation

[Mintze]

Thanks for the sharing. Can share the itinerary of the 10-day sojourn, including transportation means?

My itinerary as seen below in rough manner:
Day 1 - Kansai Airport to Hiroshima. Explore and spend a night in Hiroshima.
Day 2 - Mazda Factory visit in the morning and move to Miyajima Island after the visit. Stayed in Mayijima Island.
Day 3 - Miyajima to Osaka. Visit Osaka Tenmangu Temple and the nearby Tenjinbashi.
Day 4 - Visit Nissin Ramen Factory in the morning, Uemeda area in the afternoon and night time. Must stay in Uemeda Sky Building for sunset..MUST!!! I'm still "kek xim-ing" for traded this with a nice and relaxing dinner at Osaka Station.
Day 5 - Visit Nara
Day 6 - Osaka to Kyoto. Visit Kiyomizu-Dera Temple and the surrounding area.
Day 7 - Visit Fushimi Inari temple in the morning and Suntory beer factory in the afternoon. After get drunk, went to Nishiki market for a feast, continue to nearby shopping mall after dinner.
Day 8 - Visit Arashiyama area in the morning and Ginkaku-ji Temple in the afternoon, followed by Gion area in the night time.
Day 9 - Visit Kinkaku-ji Temple in the morning, follow by Kitano Temangu Temple. It is holding the yearly flea market during my visit. After lunch, went to Kyoto station area for a shopping spree.
Day 10 - KNX to KUL

The public transport is very convenient, yet confusing (IMHO, to certain extend). I bought a 7 days JR pass, it has covered the Shinkansen which travel thru most part of Japan. However, you can skip it if you planning to stay in one or two cities. I bought it for the trip to Hiroshima. The JR pass also covered certain local train and buses (as long as they are run by JR).

In Hiroshima, the train is running by private company, so I bought day pass instead. A day pass will cost you 500yen but it gives you unlimited ride for the rest of the day.

In Osaka, the main train line, Osaka loop line is covered by JR pass. The chances are you can travel around with JR pass.

In Kyoto, the main public transportation system is bus, it is run by private company. Similar to Hiroshima, you can buy day pass at 500yen for a day of free bus ride.

The aforementioned complex part is the exchange stations like Kyoto Station, Osaka station, Umeda Station and such. They can be ridiculously big with more than 60 platforms and 30 exits. You need to know which platform will brings you to your destination and which exit to go. I spent hell lot of time to figure this out, especially majority of the locals doesn't speak good English ( I feel very warm that they will do every little things and any little things to help you when you asked them for direction, but too bad, most of the time is in Japanese, so I ended up to ask another person and repeat the process until I find someone can speak English or I figured out what they trying to convey, whichever comes first).

If you need the itinerary in detail, I can privately email to you. Hope this helps.

 

[Mintze]

Some buggers broke into my car and taken my laptop together with HDD. I spent a lot of time to retrieve the photos from the memory card. Luckily I managed to retrieve 99.5% of them.

05th August 2015 marks the 70 years since atomic bombing at Hiroshima. I'm glad that I have chance to visit the site during my recent trip to Japan and witness the aftermath of this incident. Even it's happened 70 years ago but it feels like yesterday. The locals or visitors are making paper peace pigeon and hang them at the memorial park, the torch of peace being lighted up every evening, and there are fresh flowers from the public to the people who gave their life in the war. It just feels like it happened not long ago, perhaps, 70 years is still too short to wash away the tragedy
Taken with X-E2

Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. The degree of serenity of this park is hard to find in other places.
Taken with EM5 Mark II

An atmospheric alley in Kyoto
Taken with X-E2

Are you looking at me?
Taken with EM5 Mark II

​

 

[Jedi R]

Nice series..... Amazed by how you juggled your photo taking and your baby

 

[lorenzochoa]

Bro, may i know which brand and model of the grip u used? Im planning to buy one. Thanks

 

[Justintime]

Wow great series.

Salute your dedication to photo taking while juggling a 1 year one amazing. :thumbsup:

Can I check what was the clamp you used ? Looks very interesting

 

[eleveninth]

Wow great series.

Salute your dedication to photo taking while juggling a 1 year one amazing. :thumbsup:

Can I check what was the clamp you used ? Looks very interesting

it's from photosphere

http://photospheresg.com/collections/tripod-accessories/products/takeway-t1-mini-clamp

 

[Justintime]

it's from photosphere

http://photospheresg.com/collections/tripod-accessories/products/takeway-t1-mini-clamp

Thanks ! Hmm another thing to buy ahahaha

 

[Nikonzen]

I saw this elderly couple when I walking up to the famous Kiyomizu-Dera Temple. At first, he reached his pocket for the camera and taken a few photos of the street. Then, he passed the camera to his life partner after that and she do the same thing as he did.
The part makes me went emotional is both of them can barely stand but they still travel together, take photos together and enjoy the journey together. This is life partner.
Taken with EM5 Mark II

Majestic.

 

[Mintze]

Thank you for all the kind words and encouragement!

Thank you Eleveninth for answering the question!

 

[Mintze]

At the end of this thread, I would like to dedicate to the some photographers I bumped into during the journey, and all the photographers out there looking for great photo opportunity.

A Japanese photographer/backpacker I met in Fushimi Inari. She is currently travelling around Japan to document her own country before her venture to Europe.
Taken with EM5 Mark II

A Korean blogger/PHD student who is doing research about how culture of different countries in Asia influence each other.
Taken with X-E2

This is the end of this travelogue.

Thank you very much for all the comments, views, encouragement and kind words.

 

[hfmoon]

Bro, I am thinking to get mirrorless for travel and indoor photography (event like wedding and birthday). May I get your opinion on either Fuji or m43? Which one you prefer?

 

[Mintze]

Bro, I am thinking to get mirrorless for travel and indoor photography (event like wedding and birthday). May I get your opinion on either Fuji or m43? Which one you prefer?

Based on my experience with the cameras I owned or using, namely X-E2, E-P5 and EM-5ii, I would prefer m43 as:

1. A lot of fast lenses are available, from the razor sharp 12mm wide angle to the best telephone prime i have ever use, the 75mm. The lenses are quite reasonably priced too. There are a lot fast lenses from Fuji as well, but the price range is not as friendly as m43.

2. I do think that the af of X-E2 is not as reliable as m43. For fast moving object, the succession rate I got is perhaps 60%. In low light, the succession rate is even lower. This is based on the 18-55 kit lens. I have not try X-T1 before and not sure how is the af speed compare to X-E2 but I bet it should be much better than X-E2.

3. This is my personal preference, may not be applicable to other people. I will occasionally take video in order to document the event/trip better. The video of Fuji is pretty much "for emergency purpose" and "out of no choice" type of quality. The video quality of Olympus is not great too, but the good news is EM-5ii's video quality has improved to usable level (perhaps on par with GH-2). If video is one of the deciding factor, there are great hybrid cameras from Panasonic.

However, the high iso capability of Fuji is something m43 hard to reach. Of course it is solvable by using fast lenses, but the chances are there are some situation that you really need to bump up the iso, eg. When you are sitting under the sky filled with stars and Milky Way.

That's all I can think of for time being. I'm sure regardless which system you settle down with, you will enjoy it very much. Just need to weight the suitability of the system with your personal shooting habit before you commit to it.

 

[hfmoon]

Based on my experience with the cameras I owned or using, namely X-E2, E-P5 and EM-5ii, I would prefer m43 as:

1. A lot of fast lenses are available, from the razor sharp 12mm wide angle to the best telephone prime i have ever use, the 75mm. The lenses are quite reasonably priced too. There are a lot fast lenses from Fuji as well, but the price range is not as friendly as m43.

2. I do think that the af of X-E2 is not as reliable as m43. For fast moving object, the succession rate I got is perhaps 60%. In low light, the succession rate is even lower. This is based on the 18-55 kit lens. I have not try X-T1 before and not sure how is the af speed compare to X-E2 but I bet it should be much better than X-E2.

3. This is my personal preference, may not be applicable to other people. I will occasionally take video in order to document the event/trip better. The video of Fuji is pretty much "for emergency purpose" and "out of no choice" type of quality. The video quality of Olympus is not great too, but the good news is EM-5ii's video quality has improved to usable level (perhaps on par with GH-2). If video is one of the deciding factor, there are great hybrid cameras from Panasonic.

However, the high iso capability of Fuji is something m43 hard to reach. Of course it is solvable by using fast lenses, but the chances are there are some situation that you really need to bump up the iso, eg. When you are sitting under the sky filled with stars and Milky Way.

That's all I can think of for time being. I'm sure regardless which system you settle down with, you will enjoy it very much. Just need to weight the suitability of the system with your personal shooting habit before you commit to it.

Thank you for your time and explanation.