A couple of months ago, we returned from one of our favorite vacations of all time. In the spring, when cabin fever hits me hardest in Alaska and I’m desperate for something to pull me through the final dregs of “breakup season,” I booked us a trip to Japan somewhat on a whim. Paris and London were also on the menu, but the vote was pretty unanimous for flying into Tokyo a week after school let out. I planned out 3 days in Tokyo, 3 days on the Izu Peninsula, and a week in Kyoto.

I went into this trip not really knowing what to expect, which may be why it ended up being so successful. When your expectations are virtually nonexistent, there’s nothing left to do but be pleasantly surprised, I suppose. The girls and I flew on one of the first ever Hawaiian Airlines flights operating from Seattle to Tokyo and settled in for the 9 hour long haul flight. Yes, it was frustrating that we had to fly from Anchorage to Seattle just to fly back over Anchorage from Seattle on our way to Tokyo. The flight attendant assured me that he’d been petitioning the airline to open direct flights to Tokyo from Anchorage in the future and I truly hope he’s successful.

We landed in Tokyo in the late afternoon and met my husband there, who had flown in earlier with his company. We rode in the fanciest taxi van ever (seriously, the seats reclined and had footrests and our driver was in a full suit) to our rental, quickly unpacked, and headed out in search for a quick bite to eat before passing out. We ended up in a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant that could only seat 5 small groups of people at a time, spoke no English, and served delicious noodle dishes for cheap. In other words, it was a perfect introduction to our vacation.

Somehow, we managed to completely avoid jet lag on this leg over. After that yummy soba noodle dinner, we all crashed and slept hard for about 10 hours, then woke up feeling completely refreshed and ready to take on Tokyo.

Obviously, we barely scratched the surface of it and look forward to returning in the future. The girls were least excited for this portion of the trip, yet by the time we returned to Alaska, they claimed it ended up being their favorite part of the vacation surprisingly. Maybe it was the plethora of animal cafes (we visited with owls!), the karaoke boxes that we rocked out at on 2 of our nights in the city, or simply the vibrant culture and world that surrounded us. Whatever it was, it was a great way to dip our feet into a culture we had very little knowledge of.

I traveled light with my gear for this trip, packing only my Nikon F100 with a 50mm 1.4 lens, my Olympus XA for any blind double exposures you see in this post, and a couple dozen rolls of film. Let me tell you, Japan is a photographer’s dream, especially if you’re a film photographer. There were so many film labs and stores peppered around the city. I got to try out Candido 800, Lomo ‘92 Sun Kissed, Cinestill 800, and some other unusual film that I’m forgetting the name of at the moment, and they were all great!

tokyo japan film photo — One of my favorite things about big cities are the street performers.

There were so many of these tiny alleyways tucked between soaring high rises. I love that juxtaposition of ancient beliefs held snugly between the faces of modernity.

After a whirlwind of walking and gawking along the bustling streets of Tokyo for a few days, we hopped on a train to take us to the Izu Peninsula for a respite from the world’s largest city. The Izu feels like a completely different world, filled with surprisingly dense forests and gorgeous rocky coasts. For our first night, we stayed in the center of the peninsula in a ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese style bed and breakfast that includes a kaiseki (multi-course dinner) and access to a couple of onsens (hot spring-fed spas).

The service and atmosphere there was truly above and beyond our expectations and we had a simply magical time. The highlight was certainly shuffling down to a river gorge in our traditional robes and slippers, handheld paper lanterns lit by real candles providing feeble guidance, to revel in the sight of hundreds of fireflies waltzing and weaving in the total darkness of a moonless night. My eldest and I also enjoyed the awkwardness of stripping down to soak naked in an enormous lava stone, giggling and scampering around to avoid being seen by our less shy Asian counterparts. My youngest thought we were nuts and instead chose to remain ensconced in the room, soaking in the small, personal tub on our balcony over the river.

Totally stepped on the tatami mats in our street shoes the first time we came in…whoops!

From the center of the peninsula, we moved on down the coast to the small beach town of Yumigahama. There, we stayed in a treehouse for a couple of days, played in the water, and went on hikes along the coast. We had a good mix of tropical downpours and scorching sun while we were here for a couple of days, and even enjoyed our choice of two restaurants that spoke limited to no English. It felt far more authentically Japanese and I hope the area stays small and relatively undiscovered for the local’s sake.

It was here that I got to shoot a lot of my blind double frames. Before leaving on the trip, I had shot through a roll of Kodak Gold with a mix of colored lights and flowers around here in Anchorage, hoping to transpose the images with scenes from Japan. There’s always a risk with blind doubles that the frames won’t line up well and this time was no exception. Despite marking my starting point with a Sharpie on the film lead and lining it up exactly for my second shoot through, it just didn’t work that well. I still got some fun shots though and that’s what I enjoy most about film…the happy little accidents and surprises.

Our view from the top deck of the treehouse.

I start each day with a cup of green tea, which is typically hard to come by while traveling, but not so in Japan.

The girls were wild about the resident cat, Cheri.

We routinely argued over who got the hanging chair.

Yumigahama is considered one of the top beaches in Japan.

One of my kids knows how to jump. The other…well…

A moody ocean is quite possibly my favorite place to be in the world.

One of our two delicious, and cheap, restaurant options

So many temples and shrines and gates all over the country.

The start of our hike over to the next town.

Double exposure AND light leaks? Be still, my heart!

Here’s a good example of the half frame cut/overlay with these blind double shots. I still like it though.

I will take a picture of anything that vaguely resembles a heart.

Just loved seeing these friendly reminders…”Beware the Mamushi!”

We left Yumigahama feeling refreshed and ready to take on a week in Kyoto, which is what I was most looking forward to. That ancient city did not disappoint and I would happily live there for some amount of time in my life. The amount of beautiful temples and shrines was staggering, everyone was so friendly, the food was great, and may I reiterate how cheap everything was? Throw in easy access to film and ridiculously fast processing times (we’re talking 3 hours, guys!), and it wouldn’t take much to convince me to make a couple of year stay out of it.

We had a couple of…interesting, stories that came out of this part of our vacation, but I’ll spare my eldest from the shame of announcing it on the internet. One day though, she’ll be able to look back and laugh at all that happened to her, but it’s still too soon :-p We had fun training to be ninjas (I would be a terrible one …), wandering the Nishiki Market, attempting to play with the most cat-like dogs in existence (Shiba Inus), and marveling at a handful of the temples and shrines. Don’t worry, we left at least a thousand to explore so we have an excuse to come back.

I am OBSESSED with the lanterns of Japan.

We obviously had to fight the hoards of people to see the Golden Pavilion.

Each temple has its own version of prayer plaques, flags, or cards.

I’m pleased to announce that Japanese teenagers are also louder and sillier than any other age group in their society. Still more respectful and saner than their American counterparts, however.

One traditionally passes through a torii gate on their way to a shrine, which are typically orange, to my youngest’s utter horror. She hates the color and passes up no opportunity to let you know so.

Purifying yourself before entering is also expected, and welcome on hot days.

These adorable aprons are intended to ward off evil spirits. I just squealed in delight when I saw them, so I think that means I’m not a demon?

I thought it was really cool how these trees were being supported.

Some of the temples were pretty hip and had great vending machines within their walls. The girls were wild about the vending machines peppered around the country.

The gardens were never anything to sneeze at either! This one especially took my breath away with all of the moss.

This was the only one we visited that had a sand garden as well.

I needed a wider angle lens for this one…bummer.

We took a day trip to Nara to visit the infamous deer and gawk at our first Unesco World Heritage Site, the Todai-ji Temple. Let me just say, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt myself moved so deeply by something made by humans. Typically, I find us rather underwhelming as a species, but the sheer gargantuan size of this building that was constructed without modern tools or hardware blew my little mind. It was humbling, to say the least, and virtually impossible to capture its enormity and the awe it inspired in us. My youngest did the best, I feel.

And then the deer…wow. They were absolutely adorable, terrifyingly mercurial, and completely overrunning the grounds. Shrieks of delight mingled with screams of horror, tears flowed down toddlers’ cheeks after being kicked to the ground and head butted repeatedly, and I had to launch a rescue mission for my eldest that found herself trapped in a corner by a rare male deer holding her at antler point, demanding all of the biscuits she had just bought. For the rest of the trip, my youngest sported an impressive bruise on her thigh from a bite of impatience. All of this carnage was totally worth experiencing at least once in your life.

Yep, that’s the one that pushed my oldest into a side alley for a hold up.

And here’s the one that bestowed that bruise upon my youngest’s thigh.

But they’re just so cute, how you can possibly resist?!

They’ve also been trained to bow for the biscuits, which is pretty cute. Of course, you have to bow as well, or else you’re just being rude.

Here’s that shot my youngest took, on Lomo Purple, of the Todai-ji Temple. Trust me, it feels twice as big in person.

For the rest of this post, I’m just going to throw some random favorite shots of our time in this amazing country. All of us are dying to get back, but it won’t be anytime soon unfortunately. If you have the opportunity to visit Japan, take it! You will not regret the experience and the memories are well worth the cost of airfare and a JR Pass.