in today's video we take a cycling tour of kyoto japan
showing off some of the most beautiful and iconic places
and those lesser-known
come along with us! we hope you enjoy the ride
welcome to another video guys
when people think kyoto
and the sort of photography that you would do here
it's usually to go to very very popular spots
like kinkakuji
but of course there are many that are lesser known
which are equally if not more beautiful
today i am joined by alessandro
who is a local of kyoto
being here how many years now?
and show you around today
starting with?
so today we're starting at the philosopher's path
we're starting on the south side
which starts at nanzenji
and it's gonna go all the way up north to ginkakuji
or the silver pavilion
and it's a canal that comes all the way from north to south
i'll be trying to take you guys off the main path
and try to take you to some of the less scene spots of this space
and um especially there's an area called annakuji
that i'm really excited to share with you
we've done some cool projects there in the past
and i think it'll be a fun thing to check out
so let's go check those out
and uh we'll go see what's all about
right on
let's go
so my philosophy as a photographer is that i want to try to think outside the box
and come to these types of places
but not typically during the peak season
i find that you can discover lots of hidden qualities that are interesting in the off season
that you wouldn't normally find otherwise
normally here we have the cherry blossoms
that are just full and vibrant during the peak season in the spring
but in the lush summer right now
you have all this overgrowth and moss
and i think that that really introduces a much different quality
that i think a lot of other photographers would get in the same space
and so i always kind of encourage people to try something different in a familiar space
because you can always discover new things that are a bit more exciting
it's difficult to find a hill in kyoto
but on our mission to the next location we managed to find it
pedaled our way up it
and in short time we're ready to show you our next location
Allessandro was talking about how the philosopher's path
beautiful though it may be right now
is especially so in the spring
for the cherry blossoms
you'll find that time is a major theme throughout this video
the next place that we've come to now was called anurakuji
and this would be the place that you're going to go to
if you want to get the quintessential beautiful fall shot
to clarify
why this is so popular in fall
is that all around us here
are the iconic japanese momiji the little mini maple
when the season turns
figuratively speaking
anurakuji is on fire
it's it's incredible
yeah during the autumn season the gradation from yellows to oranges to red
this is the place for local photographers
not so much uh with as much of an international focus just yet
but we can really tell that a lot of local photographers are here
right when the autumn hits
and you can really see the evolution of this space
into something very different during the autumn season
it's very much a hidden space
but we're hoping that it can grow to
show kind of the rest of the world what the little hidden spaces in kyoto we're all about
and what it can really offer
now when you've got a long day of photography
you've gone to all these lovely spots that sandro has shown us
there will come a time when you need to take a break
and that is what this is for
this is Demachiyanagi
this is Demachiyanagi at Kamogawa delta
so it's right where the river splits at the north side of the city
and it goes all the way down throughout the city
and it's great because the kamagawa is this beautiful place for everyone to relax at
but right at the delta it's a perfect spot for picnics and
families and stuff
but if you do have a picnic here you gotta watch out
there are hawks that are always
looking to steal your food
and that's been the topic of a few funny incidents for me here
very relaxing
we gotta put our feet in and cool down
and it's uh it's a blast
definitely
when you need to take a break come to the Demachianagi
put your feet in
relax
and then you'll be energized to get out there to get those last great shots of the day
once more as the sun fell we got on our bikes and headed to the final location
that sandro had thought would be a good place for us to hit up before ending our day
if you guys have ever heard of someone coming to kyoto for the purpose of taking geisha photography
most prominent would be the gion district
it's very well known
it's very beautiful
but highly frequented
very very busy
but tonight we're on the complete opposite side of town
at kamishichi ken
which is the oldest hanamachi or geisha district in all of kyoto
and for that reason other side of town
it means that it is far less known
and far less frequented
that kind of hidden quality means that the whole place is very tranquil
and the aesthetics reflect that in a very subdued way
you'll see that most of these buildings are old dark wood Machiya
or traditional japanese houses
and there are local businesses that have been here for generations
one of the most iconic uh images though of kamishiken
is the inverted lanterns
that the ones you normally see in gion
gion you have red lanterns with skewered DANGO
or sweet dumplings
that it's a red lantern with white dumplings on it
but here you have white lanterns with red dumplings
and it kind of shows the connection to gion
but in its own little unique way
it's has its own identity
talking about aesthetic
probably what you've noticed most obviously is that we have come here at night
so the idea being and this is something we want to get across
this is sort of the moral of the story for us
as we made this today was that
it's not necessarily that we're going to a place that's more or less popular all the time
the philosopher's path is pretty well known
but the idea that you could go somewhere
and put your own stamp on it
by just changing things up a little bit
we went to the philosopher's path when it was summer
we've come here when it's night time
it doesn't take much
but you can make something entirely original by just shifting the perspective on it
by a little bit
i want to thank you guys so much for coming out to enjoy this time with us in the video
it's really cool to explore all around kyoto like this
there are many more spots sandra would show me if we had more time
but perhaps that's for another video
thank you again for tuning in to this one
let us know in the comments down
below
which section you enjoyed the most
where would you shoot your photography
we'll catch you in the next onethat's all for now
peace