I opened my discussion where I left off from the last photo conversation with John Cornicello at the Japanese Ryokan that inspired Hayao Miyazaki to create one of his anime masterpieces, ‘Spirited Away.’ I have spent endless hours, days, primarily nights photographing the ryokan, but I am still not finished photographing its splendorous magic.  Photo opportunities are everywhere, and HDR is a must.  Over ten years ago, I talked with the owner and staff and asked if it would be okay to photograph throughout the hotel on my first visit, and this is a practice I continue to this day. The present owner, a representative of the 6th generation of owners, and the family have always been visionaries and gave their blessings. And due to all the challenges this year with the Covid-19 passports, once participants arrive in Japan for my annual October Autumn photography workshop that was postponed last year due to social distancing, I have decided to upgrade our hotels, and we are going to stay at this traditional Japanese Ryokan built in the Edo Period.

After Spirited Away, I transitioned into the seasons of Japan. During winter, I discussed my annual Hokkaido Wildlife Photography Tour Adventure Expedition.  I included some of the wildlife that I am blessed to photograph every season: Red-crowned Cranes, Whooper Swans, Steller’s Sea Eagles, White-tailed Eagles, Shima Enaga, or Long Tail Bush Tit, Blakiston’s Fish Owls, Glaucous Gulls, and land bound wildlife as well such as the Ezo Red Fox, and with my years of experience photographing in the great outdoors including Hokkaido, and how I have not felt the desire or need to visit any zoos since I was about six years old, simply I grew up in a wilderness family and have been spotting animals in the wild all my life.  I then cautioned viewers about joining photo workshops and proper scouting of locations, and I mentioned it usually takes me about 2-5 years to scout a region before I feel comfortable leading a photography workshop to that region, especially when I have international clients who do not know the region such as on my annual Hokkaido workshops where sudden storms arise, in all seasons. You defiantly want to be cautious about joining a Japan photo workshop with a leader who has only scouted a week in Hokkaido and does not understand how to observe the terrain and weather conditions; your Hokkaido Photo Workshop could have an unfortunate ending. I have seen several workshop leaders who claim to know Japan and Hokkaido, and on their website itineraries, they have their routes listed. In a couple of cases, the route they have selected for mid-winter has them driving with clients on roads that are only open in the summer. See the image below; this road is listed on a Hokkaido photo workshop with a leader out of Australia. This photo workshop leader, 100% I know he has never driven this "summer only mountain pass road" or seen the gate in mid-winter, as he has it listed on his website as his route in mid-February to cross Shiretoko National Park Pass. I have driven this road dozens of times when it's open, in mid-summer, and it's a hard drive. These types of photo tour leaders get their info from google maps, social media, my newsletter, links, and Instagram posts. Most of these persons are good people and are trying to make a living, but they are reckless, especially in mid-winter, when the temperature drops to -25℃ in some regions they are leading clients, with only a week scouting the region.

The season transition from winter to spring brought photos of the warbling Japanese white-eye, called the mejiro in Japan, and the Kawazu sakura. I shared photos from my cross-country Cherry Blossom Photo Adventure spanning from Mt. Fuji to Hirosaki in the Aomori prefecture. Sakura always lends themselves to breathtaking photos, and I was happy to share views of different varieties of sakura from all across the country. To see the entire battery of photos, you can watch the photo conversation on Youtube (courtesy of the link below). And Autumn signifies focusing on the infamous Japanese maple and the leaves in red, gold, orange, and the rare purple maples. The photos I chose were a cross-section of different locations, both nearby my country home in Niigata and closer to the main office in Kanagawa, but most of the country was represented.