It finally happened.  I caved and John bought us a camera.  After a few back and forths, excel spreadsheet comparisons, and navigating a camera store in Japan, we are now the very proud owners of a Nikon d610.  I’m such a novice when it comes to this stuff, but I’m told that it’s a nice camera.  Personally, at this point I just like the sound it makes when I take a picture…

John has always had an interest in photography and has been on about getting a camera for awhile.  However, there was always some reason or another on why we didn’t buy one until now.  Given the fact that my husband dedicates his soul to the camp Toyota, he deserved a distraction, even if it happens to be an expensive one.  Honestly, I haven’t seen him this excited about something in such a long time.  It was super refreshing, for both of us I think.  And that friends brings me to the heart of this story, photography and a visit from my grandpa.

My grandpa had planned a visit to Japan awhile ago and just happened to come the same week we bought said camera.  Therefore, it was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of it and see places like Kyoto and Tokyo through a different lens (haha get it?).

The world traveler, aka my grandpa, happens to know a thing or two about photography and was happy to teach me some of what he knows.  I have to admit that wandering around Kyoto taking photos brought a whole new light to my adventures there.  It was also a nice memory for me to make with my grandpa.

Not only was I able to show my grandpa around Japan’s OG imperial capital, I was also able to learn a few things about taking photos.  However, amateur hour is still alive and well when it comes to me and photography, but for your viewing pleasure here are a few snaps from the day.

To be honest there wasn’t a better way to dip my toe in photography then to travel around with a person whose hobby is to travel…and take photos! So thank you grandpa for sharing your knowledge with me-and allowing me to practice my skills as a tour guide!

After a trip to Kyoto, a tour de Nagoya, and a very expense version of Benihana, we made our way to Tokyo for the weekend.  Tokyo was John’s first chance to take photos with our new camera that was not of our cats.  However, there are a few legit ones of the fur babes.  For example, this particularly gorgeous shot of Sergeant-chan.

Now that you’ve had your dose of cuteness…our trip to Tokyo is the perfect place to capture the weird, the unusual, and things that are so uniquely Japanese.  This time around John did most of the photo taking and also learned a thing or two from my grandpa.  We especially had some fun wandering around the camera store in Shinjuku.

Here are few snaps of John’s first outing with the Nikon.

Obviously, photography is a new hobby for us, but what a fun way to explore two cities in a way that we haven’t before.

Being able to share our experiences here in Japan with our family has been priceless for us.  It’s hard to put in words sometimes how we live and what our life is like here in the Land of the Rising Sun.  I feel thankful that I was able to show my grandpa, who I believe I got my love of travel from, our life here in Japan.  He also gave me an A+ as a tour guide…so if you happen to see me on TripAdvisor in the near future, you’ll know why! Or maybe I’ll just start charging future guests.  😉 Disclaimer: I’m not actually on TripAdvisor!

I’ll leave you with one last picture that John is particularly proud of, given that he has this fancy photo editing software now.  I also may have accidentally made him feel a little bad about it the other day and feel that I need to share with the world the awesomeness that is this photo. #marriage

Until next time! Ja Mata じゃあまた！