We got back from Japan about a month ago, but this is the first chance I’ve had to write about the trip! It was a really great time on the whole, and I definitely got some shots I’m happy with.

The first part of the trip was spent near Nagano, with the snow monkeys at Jigokudani. Compared to the last time I was here, it seemed like there wasn’t nearly as much snow, and the monkeys didn’t hang out in the hot spring quite as much. I tried to get a little more creative about what shots I was finding, including this timelapse of the tourists coming through one Sunday morning.

Jigokudani Monkey Park Timelapse from Josh Anon on Vimeo.

One of the neat moments from here was when a monkey decided to reach out and touch my lens. I had actually picked up a cold before coming to Japan, and between the sulfurous hot springs and the fishy food, not being able to smell anything turned out to be a good thing.

Next, we headed up north to Hokkaido, stopping first in Tsurui. Here, we were shooting hooded cranes at the Otawa-bashi bridge, the Akan international crane center, and the crane sanctuary. But boy was it cold (-27°C one morning)! One of the highlights for me was getting this shot of eagles fighting in mid-air. I also took this timelapse of the stars over the Otawa (or Otowa) bridge.

Otowa Bridge Timelapse from Josh Anon on Vimeo.

From there, we headed to Lake Kussharo to photograph whooper swans, and it was pretty amazing listening to the ice on the lake creek and re-freeze as the sun set.

Next up, we went up north to Rausu to photograph a Blakiston’s fish owl and stellar sea eagles. Unfortunately, the seas were too rough and the ice was too far out in the channel to shoot eagles, but we got some great shots of the Blakiston’s fish own. There was an incredible wind/snow storm one morning as well, and even the swans had trouble in it.

On our last day, we woke up early, shot sunrise, and raced back to Kushiro to catch our flight to Tokyo. We went out shooting Tokyo that evening, and ended the trip on a great note with some Nepalese food.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 2:26pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.