Reframing: A Photographer's Journey Through Japan
Two women in Kyoto with cotton candy.
There are trips you take because something inside you needs to move. I really needed a change of scenery, the kind that shakes loose the familiar and hands you back your own eyes like they're new. So, I went to Japan.
I arrived in Tokyo on a Friday night in March, jet-lagged and wide awake, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.
Tokyo: 35 million people can’t be wrong.
Tokyo is the kind of place that dares you to put your camera down. The city has an energy I've never encountered anywhere else. It’s layered, electric, and somehow both overwhelming and deeply welcoming. Brad and I spent the first days wandering the Arakawa and Nippori neighbourhoods, eating gyoza and sushi from tiny counters, and getting lost in the best way.
What struck me as a photographer wasn't the iconic landmarks, but rather the visuals that lent themselves to the idea that life was happening right here but with a very different backdrop than I was used to back home. The quiet neon glow under the noisy train tracks at Taito, the food vendors in Ueno Park, the pin-drop silence on a busy subway. There's a narrative energy in Tokyo that just keeps giving.
TeamLab Planets stopped me in my tracks. A living, immersive art experience that made me reconsider everything I thought I knew about light and space and what an image can hold. And then there was the Imperial Palace and its gardens in the afternoon, and Shibuya crossing at rush hour, and then Shinjuku at midnight with Godzilla looming overhead. Every block is a new story.
Kamakura: Scale, Stillness, and a Great Buddha
We took a day trip south to Kamakura and that Buddha sure was great! There's something about scale that recalibrates the photographer's eye. You stop trying to make it dramatic and just let it be exactly what it is.
The shrines had that same quality; a stillness that felt earned rather than staged. I noticed how much my instinct was to reach for wide angles here, to let the architecture do the work. After the density of Tokyo, Kamakura felt like exhaling. The BBQ brewery and a cold beer at the end of it didn't hurt either.
Kawagoe. Real Edo Japan.
Another beautiful day was had in Kawagoe. A small city with a big Edo-period street. The buildings were at the top of my list of things to see in Japan, and they did not disappoint. We wandered and found Candy Lane, a road that once had up to 75 candy makers & exporters and supplied the entire country of Japan with confections. Pretty sweet.
Kyoto: Learning to See Slowly
The bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto takes under three hours, but the energy shift is enormous. Kyoto moves differently. The first morning Brad and I soaked in the onsen before the city woke up, then walked to Nijo Castle through early cherry blossoms in glorious sunshine. Likely my favourite part of traveling is walking everywhere and seeing as much as possible. We were gifted with that kind of day.
Nijo Castle showcased Shogun-era architecture and full sunshine. Kiyomizu-dera came next and challenged my composition instincts all over again. Massive, and yet it sits within the hillside so naturally it never feels like it's trying to impress you. I wandered away and found the tiny Seikan-ji temple nearby, saw the earthquake rock, and spent more time than expected in that space.
Jojakoji in Arashiyama became my favourite place of the entire journey. A small ancient temple so carpeted in moss it felt like stepping inside a painting. The light there is so soft and so green that you almost feel guilty pointing a lens at it. Almost.
We saved Fushimi Inari for last and took the quiet side of the mountain away from the crowds. Thousands of torii gates in orange and red, framing the forest path in a way no lens can prepare you for. What the photographs won't show you is the sound. Birds, footsteps on stone, your own breathing. It truly was a scene to behold
Osaka: Colour, People, Pure Energy
Osaka was a shock after Kyoto's quiet grace. The castle stands proud against a clear sky. The Karumon food market. Dotonbori along the canal on a beautiful afternoon, surrounded by so many people that the sheer energy of the crowd becomes its own subject entirely. We watched people make TikToks and make mistakes making TikToks all over the city, and had shoju sours that stood a foot high. We were told… Osaka is the party city!
I've always been drawn to people as subjects, so I had to snag a few shots of the unsuspecting pedestrians. Osaka gave me that in abundance. The canal at Dotonbori in the evening light may be the most photographed stretch of street in Japan, and it earns every single frame.
The Blossoms Were in Bloom
We returned to Tokyo on March 29, and Ueno Park had transformed. The cherry blossoms were fully open; a day you can never plan for and cannot control. The park was so full of people that you couldn't always see where you were going. It was a moment that almost made me grumble until I thought about why everyone came out, simply, to celebrate the beauty of nature.
I stood under those trees and thought about what Japan had given me across 17 days. Not just photographs, but a genuine reframe. A reminder that sometimes the best thing you can do for your eye is take it somewhere entirely unfamiliar and just let it look.
— Nicole Leclair Photography
