Essence of Autumn Japan Photography Tour Oct 27 - Nov 7, 2025. Japan Autumn Leaves & Ocean Stacks Photo Workshop Japan - Blain Harasymiw Photography Japan
Experience authentic, untouched Japan. Over 90% of this Essence of Autumn in Japan photography workshop takes place off the beaten path. Japanese dogma has made “Zen” a familiar concept around the world. Japan’s aesthetics are vibrant and brilliant. On this autumn in Japan photo workshop, our route is a cross-country adventure, and we will be following one of Japan's most ancient pilgrimage routes. Your hosts are all locals who know the history and folklore in-depth of the countless locations we will visit in Autumn 2025. You will not only have great photography but one hell of a story to go along with your images. We will visit Japan’s most prestigious Edo period Samurai architecture, a memorial to generations of Shoguns especially for the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. Those looking forward to the second season of the TV Drama Shogun set in Japan in the year 1600, with Lord Yoshii Toranaga as its main character, will learn the history of who this character is actually based on, ‘The Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543 - 1616)’. Those who join us for the Essence of Autumn photo tour Japan 2025 will journey on the same pilgrimage routes that Shoguns, Geisha, Artisans, Zen Buddhists Monks, Ronin, and common folk traveled. Highlights include: as mentioned above Japan’s most brilliant Samurai UNESCO Shrine Complexes, Mt. Fuji & the Fuji Five Lakes, Fukushima highlands, Sea of Clouds in the Valley of the Dragons Niigata, Koi Ponds, and rice terraces at golden hours. A Hamlet that is home to countless Kofun era (250 AD - 600 AD) Burial Mounds, many now obscured by Zen Sanctuaries and Shinto Shrine Complexes, nestled in natural surroundings. A Samurai village and region founded by Ronin, masterless Samurai. After a battle, Samurai had three choices: 1. Die with honor committing Seppuku, 2. Join the opposing force, or 3. Run, be free, and become a Ronin. New for 2025 are Ocean Stack Photography along the Sea of Japan. Your photo workshop leader Blain has been scouting and leading private photo workshops in this region for over seven years, and is happy to offer this once in a lifetime experience packaged together for Autumn 2025 group photo workshop. Blain’s philosophy is simple Ocean stack photography is amazing, especially during golden hours at spots that are true and tested, it’s paramount to know locations, topography, synchronicity at location with the arc of the sun to capture the perfect sunburst with sea stacks.
Autumn 2025 Group Photography Workshop is going to be an epic all inclusive journey into authentic Japan.
Day 1 - 2, Meet and greet Tokyo Haneda Airport, (HND), place to 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 the highland lakes and waterfalls of Nikko off the beaten path. Parts of Nikko itself are on the beaten path, but as your leader, Blain has spent over 25 years photographing Nikko and knows the tourists' timing and how to avoid the rush and tourist pollution.
Lodging TBA to participants (2 nights) – Our lodgings have private and communal hot springs/male and female bathe separately. Western or Japanese style Rooms with ensuite facilities. Dinner and breakfast at our hotel, lunch at a local establishment.
Day 3, Fukushima highlands. Over 70% of Japan is unpopulated wilderness, and there are over 120,000 wild snow monkeys across Japan. The region we will be in has a healthy population of snow monkeys, plus some of the country's most breathtaking autumn leaves, and brilliantly vibrant colored lakes, the colors range from a lime green to deep turquoise to a topaz blue. The colors are thanks to an 1888 volcanic eruption, which gave each lake a rich and distinctive color; the various minerals found in each lake give them a unique color and create a mystical aura.
Lodging TBA to participants (1 night) – Our lodgings have private and communal hot springs/male and female bathe separately. Western or Japanese style Rooms with ensuite facilities. Dinner and breakfast at our hotel, lunch at a local establishment.
Day 4 - 6, Niigata, Yamagata Ocean Stacks. During the day we will venture into the interior to photograph autumn colors, possibly snow monkeys in the wild frontier. Blain has friends in this region who are farmers that provide for his family’s annual rice needs. The mineral rich water in this region is famous; it is so pure and clean that locals and people such as Blain and team visit and take home hundreds of liters 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 be by the water's edge photographing Ocean Stacks and getting ready for golden hour. The ebb and flow of the Sea of Japan has created photogenic sea stacks along the coastline.
Lodging TBA to participants (3 nights) – Our lodgings have private and communal hot springs/male and female bathe separately. Western or Japanese style Rooms with ensuite facilities. Dinner and breakfast at our hotel, lunch 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 awaits you. 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 a rest and continue our day around 11am. We will visit a Koi sanctuary where Niigata’s most prized Koi are kept, some worth tens of thousands of dollars, at Koi auctions in Niigata its 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 very a unique and cool 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 at highlands rice terraces.
Lodging TBA to participants (2 nights) – Our lodgings have private and communal hot springs/male and female bathe separately. Western style Rooms with ensuite facilities. Dinner and breakfast at our hotel, lunch 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, 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, Blain will share the more breathtaking shrines and temples of the region, spending an entire day unpacking some of the mysteries from the dozens of Zen Buddhist sanctuaries and burial mounds across the region.
Lodging TBA to participants (1 nights) – Our lodgings have private and communal hot springs/male and female bathe separately. Western or Japanese style Rooms with ensuite facilities. Dinner and breakfast at our hotel, lunch at a local establishment.
Day 10 - 11, Mt. Fuji & the Fuji Five Lakes. For centuries, artisans have been mesmerized by Mount Fuji and its breathtaking beauty. 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, that no one picture that you take will express the Zen emotion that will overcome you. They say that 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 to participants (2 nights) – Our lodgings have private and communal hot springs/male and female bathe separately. Western style Rooms with ensuite facilities. Dinner and breakfast at our hotel, lunch at a local establishment.
Day 12, Sunrise photography at one of the Fuji Five lakes with Mt. Fuji in the backdrop, or at the regions 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
☞ Master Class Professional photography instruction
☞Photograph Japanese cultural and architectural masterpieces, learn the authentic history and story behind each image and location, so you can share with friends and loved ones the perfect captions
☞Activity level leisurely
☞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 our 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
☞All Lodgings 3-5 Star, all meals included, drinks and snacks in vehicles provided
Tour Cost: $8999 USD
Single Supplement: $1400 USD
Not Included: Flights to JPN and from JPN, alcohol beverages, travel health insurance, items of a personal nature.
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.
