Over 90% of this all inclusive Cross Country Autumn Leaves Japan Photography workshop tour is off the beaten path to avoid tourist pollution. Amateurs and pros are welcome.   Pick up and drop off at Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)!   Photograph Japan’s most brilliant Red Maple Leaf trees in Niigata, Nagano, Yamanashi, Toyama, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka Prefectures, Japan, plus other vibrant colored tree species and plants dressed in autumn.  On this Japan cross country photo expedition safari, we will cover a lot of ground and sights, a few highlights include up close encounters with the Snow Monkeys, Maple leaf corridor in Mt. Fuji and the Fuji Five Lakes, plus jade gorge, the sea of clouds in the valley of the dragons Niigata, Japan, plenty of waterfalls, plus much much more.  Remember about 90% of this Japan Autumn leaves business class photography workshop takes place in authentic Japan, where few westerners travel.  Come Experience and Photograph Untouched Authentic Japan🇯🇵!

Day 1 - 2: Meet and greet Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND), and the time and place will be announced to participants.  After our meet and greet, we depart for Nikko UNESCO World Heritage Site Shrines and Temples, encompassing over 100 Japanese architectural masterpieces.  Nikko was founded in the 8th century and is closely associated with the history of the Tokugawa Shoguns. The Shinkyo Bridge is the gateway to the Futarasan Jinja and is best photographed at first light.  We will also visit Nikko's highland lakes and waterfalls off the beaten path.  Parts of Nikko are on the beaten path, and as your leader, I have spent over 25 years photographing Nikko, knowing the tourists' timing and how to avoid the rush and tourist pollution. 

Lodging TBA for participants (2 nights): Our lodgings have private and communal hot springs and males and females bathe separately. They are Western or Japanese-style Rooms with ensuite facilities. Dinner and breakfast are at our hotel, and lunch is at a local establishment.

Day 3, Fukushima Highlands.  Over 70% of Japan is unpopulated wilderness, with over 120,000 wild snow monkeys across Japan.  The region we will be in has a healthy population of snow monkeys, some of the country's most breathtaking autumn leaves, and brilliantly vibrant coloured lakes; the colours range from lime green to deep turquoise to topaz blue.  The colours are thanks to an 1888 volcanic eruption, which gave each lake a rich and distinctive colour; the various minerals found in each lake give them a unique colour and create a mystical aura.

Lodging TBA for participants (1 night): Our lodgings have private and communal hot springs and males and females bathe separately. They are Western or Japanese-style Rooms with ensuite facilities. Dinner and breakfast are at our hotel, and lunch is at a local establishment.

Day 4 - 6, Niigata, Yamagata Ocean Stacks.  During the day, we will venture into the interior to photograph autumn colours, possibly snow monkeys in the wild frontier.  I have friends in this region who are farmers who provide for my family's annual house rice consumption.  The mineral-rich water in this region is famous; it is so pure and clean that locals and people such as myself and my team visit and take home hundreds of litres of water a year that is drunk unfiltered, and this is the same water in which the region's rice grows.   Mid-afternoon, we will photograph Ocean Stacks by the water's edge and prepare for golden hour.  The ebb and flow of the Sea of Japan has created photogenic sea stacks along the coastline.  

Participants' lodging is TBA (3 nights). Our lodgings have private and communal hot springs; males and females bathe separately. They are Western or Japanese-style Rooms with ensuite facilities. Dinner and breakfast are at our hotel, and lunch is at a local establishment.

Day 7 - 8, Niigata highlands, Yuzawa region.  Perfectly composed natural scenery with the still waters framed with scintillating Japanese Maples in red, yellow, and orange await you.  On our first morning, we will visit the Sea of Clouds and depart our lodgings in the blue hour; we will travel 30 minutes to a vantage point known as the Valley of the Dragons, where we will photograph above the clouds looking down into a valley 20km long and onto several hamlets below, hills and trees are covered in the sea of clouds, and as the clouds and fog move and grow thicker and thinner, the hills and trees appear similar to Sea-Stacks in the Ocean, and the hamlets below have a mystical glow.  Then we will return to our lodgings for breakfast and rest and continue our day around 11 am.   We will visit a Koi sanctuary where Niigata's most prized Koi are housed year-round. Some Koi fish are worth tens of thousands of dollars, and at Koi auctions in Niigata, it's not uncommon for Koi to sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.  We will feed and photograph them coming to the surface in the dozens with hungry mouths open; it's a unique and extraordinary experience.  Also, we will visit one of Japan's most famous autumn leaves forests with a reflecting pond.  In the golden hour, we will photograph highland rice terraces.  

Lodging TBA for participants (2 nights): Our lodgings have private and communal hot springs, where males and females bathe separately. They are Western-style Rooms with ensuite facilities. Dinner and breakfast are at our hotel, and lunch is at a local establishment.

Day 9, Chichibu.  This day, we will explore the mystical spiritualism that has inhabited the area for centuries; as fellow pilgrims, we will paint with light as photographers do.  Many of the temples, Zen Buddhist sanctuaries, and Shinto shrine complexes in the region are products of the same artisans responsible for crafting the intricate and captivating art adorning the temples of Nikko, also sharing the influence of the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.  As a local who has scouted the region for decades, I will share the region's more breathtaking shrines and temples, spending an entire day unpacking some of the mysteries from the dozens of Zen Buddhist sanctuaries and burial mounds across the region.  

Lodging TBA for participants (1 night): Our lodgings have private and communal hot springs and males and females bathe separately. They are Western or Japanese-style Rooms with ensuite facilities. Dinner and breakfast are at our hotel, and lunch is at a local establishment.

Day 10 - 11,  Mt. Fuji & the Fuji Five Lakes.  Artisans have been mesmerized by Mount Fuji and its breathtaking beauty for centuries.  Autumn is especially mesmerizingly beautiful, with lavish displays of vibrant fall foliage and the legendary Japanese maple tree in red, yellow, and orange. By daylight or moonlight, Blain guarantees that Mount Fuji will capture your heart and imagination and that no one picture you take will express the Zen emotion that will overcome you. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but it will take a thousand pictures to express your one emotion of photographing autumn in Mount Fuji.

Lodging TBA for participants (2 nights): Our lodgings have private and communal hot springs, where males and females bathe separately. They are Western-style Rooms with ensuite facilities. Dinner and breakfast are at our hotel, and lunch is at a local establishment.

Day 12, Sunrise photography at one of the Fuji Five lakes with Mt. Fuji in the backdrop or at the region's ancient Shinto Sanctuary.  Return to lodgings for breakfast and checkout.  Afternoon drop off and departure at Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND).  Thank you for your participation, and we look forward to our next adventure together. 

Why Choose this Photography Tour/Workshop?

☞Any level of photographer is welcome

☞All camera formats are welcome: digital, handy-cams, scoping with iPhone large format, film, etc 

☞Professional photo instruction available when requested

☞Photograph Japanese cultural and architectural masterpieces

☞Visit the Snow Monkeys without dealing with the freezing cold

☞Activity level varying from leisurely to moderate

☞Provided transportation: Sports Utility Vehicles with Business Class Seating

☞Small group size means quality, in-depth time with your workshop leader 

☞All questions are welcome and encouraged throughout your adventure

☞Each morning and evening, we will discuss our best shooting options with our weather conditions in hand so that we will be well-prepared

Tour Cost: $9,900 USD

Single Supplement: $1400 USD

Not Included: Flights to JPN and from JPN, alcoholic beverages, travel health insurance and other insurances, lunches, and items of a personal nature.

Workshop/Tour Policies 

General Enrollments Information for Adventure/Workshops
by Instructor/Teacher of Photography Blain Harasymiw.

A deposit of USD$1000 per persons, will reserve a place for you on one of our tours/workshops.
Or you can simply pay in full now.