One of the dirty secrets of Kyoto photography is that the reality of what you’ll end up shooting is rarely the serene, uncrowded temples and peaceful landscapes you see in marketing photos. To the contrary, most images of Fushimi Inari, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Kiyomizudera, Yasaka, and other locations are taken incredibly early in the morning […]
Our first-timer’s guide to Kyoto covers what you need to know to plan the perfect trip to Japan’s cultural capital, and second most popular destination in the country after Tokyo. Avoid common mistakes and learn everything for the ideal vacation with our top 10 tips & tricks for your first visit to Kyoto, Japan. (Last […]
When traveling to Japan’s Kansai region, Kyoto is a great home base. It’s easy to get to several other major cities by standard rail or Shinkansen in under an hour or two, and a few lower profile mountain escapes are also easy to access. We’ve done numerous day trips from Kyoto, and in this post, […]
Kyoto has the most glorious gardens in all of Japan. From karesansui Zen rock gardens to stroll gardens, the best exemplars of the art of Japanese gardening can be found in Kyoto. In this post, I’ll share my favorite gardens in Kyoto. Fair warning: it was difficult to narrow down Kyoto’s garden highlights to a […]
It’s difficult to narrow down the best fall colors locations in Kyoto down to a top 10 list. From foliage dotting the hillsides of Arashiyama to tree-lined temples of Higashiyama and everywhere in between, autumn in Japan’s ancient capital is a veritable sea of koyo (colorful leaves). The Japanese maple trees seem especially deep and vibrant in […]
As promised in our Top 10 Favorite Experiences in Japan (So Far), we are back with a travel bucket list for the country. While we’ve made several trips to Japan and visited most major cities, we have yet to experience the far reaches of Japan. We’ve also yet to eat everything, attend every major festival, see […]
Japan is our favorite country to visit in the world. We’ve traveled to Tokyo and Kyoto more than any other cities, and have fallen in love with Japan’s culture, people, cuisine, beauty, and history. In this post, we’ll share some of our favorite experiences in Japan thus far. It was actually pretty tough to narrow […]
Making a list of the best things to do in Tokyo and narrowing that down to 10 items is a fool’s errand. From museums to theme parks to the bizarre yet awesome, Japan’s capital city has no shortage of excellent things to do. Nevertheless, we are going to narrow this list down, as it’s likely you have […]
France is an incredible place. After numerous trips spanning from Normandy to the Loire Valley, and a variety of places in between, it has become one of our favorite countries in the world. In this post, we’ll detail some of our favorite experiences in France thus far. It’s not so much a top 10 things […]
Due to its sprawling nature, one of the challenges about a list of the top things to do in Los Angeles is defining L.A. This might sound odd, as the definition of city is pretty straightforward. It’s not exactly an amorphous thing. However, since Los Angeles is spread out, with many of its key draws beyond the […]