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Join Adam Monk, celebrated Japanese photographer Toshiki Nakanishi and our guide Rika Nishimura for 13 days of photo tour adventures in the rich diversity of Japan in Winter.
Japan Winter Photo Tour
Japan Winter Photo Tour
Japan 2025 - Winter Wonders
tour details coming soon
We are spending 7 full days in the winter wonderland of Hokkaido, and we will be exploring much further afield to include the iconic Whooper Swans, Steller’s sea eagles and the Red-Crowned Japanese Cranes, before travelling on to the famous snow monkeys of Shibu Onsen. We will contrast the snow-draped minimalist landscapes in Hokkaido with the amazing wildlife found there, ending in the bustling metropolis of Tokyo. This tour is a mix of unique wildlife, stunning landscapes, Japanese culture and fabulous food!
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13 days in Japan, 12 nights on tour.
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Maximum group of 6 people.
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Tour begins Sapporo (Hokkaido) and ends in Tokyo.
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All your meals on tour (breakfast, lunch & dinner).
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Travel in trains, planes and private coaches.
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All your transport on tour included.
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Native Japanese guide with extensive experience and excellent English.
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Photo Tuition from 2 full time professional photographers.
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Itinerary created by photographers, not a travel agent.
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All locations have been scouted by us.
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Extensive photography and Lightroom Notes to keep.
Japan Winter Photo Tour Highlights
Tour Information
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Dates: Feb 4 – 16 2024
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13 days, 12 nights in Japan.
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Just 6 places available
Pricing
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Total Tour Price: JPY1,495,000 PP* Twin Share
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Booking Deposit: JPY250,000 PP**
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Single Supplement: JPY130,000***
This Photo Tour is 13 days of surreal winter landscapes, history, culture and food in Japan. The tour will begin in Sapporo, Hokkaido and will end in Tokyo. The price is inclusive of all meals, breakfast lunch and dinner, transport, accommodation, photography tuition and local Japanese guides.
This tour will be a lovely balance of minimalist snow-covered landscapes, wilderness and wildlife, including the Japanese Cranes, Steller’s sea eagles, Whooper Swans and Snow Monkeys, people, culture, and lots of great Japanese food and sake. It is a fantastic tour to see the other Japan, the Japan that exists through the winter. Keep reading below to see the complete details.
Winter in Japan.
This tour is an opportunity to experience the visual and cultural richness of Japan at a pace tailored to photographers.
You will be creating images as diverse as the minimalist landscapes of Hokkaido, nature up-close with the Whooper Swans and Japanese Cranes in the surreal winter environment, and the snow monkeys in central Honshu.
Japan is a country of over 400 inhabited islands – four large ones and over 6,000 small uninhabited ones.
To the west and north are China, Korea and Russia, yet Japan’s unique culture has evolved over the millennium from prehistoric to feudal to a modern economy.
Fascinating traditional elements live alongside rural and urban community life, challenging the Japanese and foreigners to interact with the many sub-cultures that exist there.
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Day 1. Sun, Feb 4: Meet in our Sapporo Hotel for dinner
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Day 2-4. Feb 5-7: Pick up our van and drive to the Biei region. Lots of stunning minimalist snow covered landscapes. We spend 3 nights in the Biei region.
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Day 5. Feb 8: Photograph the Märchen Hill (fairytale Hill) trees and Drift Ice off the coast.
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Day 6-7. Feb 9-10: Photograph the great Sea Eagles, drift Ice off the coast of the Notsuke Penninsula and the Ezo Deer
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Day 8-10. Feb 11-13: Photograph Whooper Swans and Red Crowned Cranes (Ito Sanctuary).
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Day 11. Feb 14: We return to Sapporo, say goodbye to Toshiki, and fly to Matsumoto. Here we pick up our transport and drive to Shibu Onsen for the Snow Monkeys locations.
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Day 12. Feb 15: Jigokutani – We have the whole day to photograph the Snow Monkeys.
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Day 13. Fri, Feb 16: Express train to Tokyo, where the tour ends. Tokyo Extension tour starts.
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Our group size for this Winter in Japan photo tour is just 6 people, plus Adam & Toshiki as photo guides and Rika, our Japanese guide. 6 is an intimate number for a photo group, so it makes us agile as well as less imposing on the locals.
We can stay in the smaller more boutique Hotels and Ryokans (Japanese traditional Inn), eat in smaller more interesting restaurants and use a small van for our transport, instead of a big bus; in places like Hokkaido having a big bus is a real handicap and you simply can’t get a bus into some of the locations we will visit.
This means all the big tourist groups are effectively excluded from most of our locations – great news for us!
Our transport for this tour is very diverse. We have an internal flight to maximise effective time, we try out the astoundingly slick Japanese rail system and we have our own private van in Hokkaido.
Basically, we have chosen the most efficient and most comfortable means of getting around in the vastly different regions we will be exploring.
But you don’t have to worry about any of this, it’s all included in the tour and we make all the arrangements so you can make the most of the adventure.
There are no hidden extras on this winter photo tour to Japan.
There are no meals that are not covered or nights you have to find your own hotel. All your transport while on the tour, from the internal flight, express train tickets to local taxis and buses are covered as well as all entrance fees to gardens and National Parks.
This tour begins in Sapporo (Hokkaido) and ends in Tokyo, so you just have to make your way to our Sapporo hotel and back home at the end from our Tokyo hotel (There is even an optional Tokyo extension tour).
Hotel and Airport transfers are very simple in Japan, and we will ensure you know how to get there by sending you complete written instructions before the tour begins, including Hotel names and addresses in Japanese script that you can show to the bus or taxi driver to remove any doubt.
A common scenario for many tours is to squeeze as much into your time as possible, many destinations with very little time in each, and of course, constantly moving hotels!
We don’t do it that way.
We go to fewer locations, but we give you time to explore them. In most locations we are staying two nights because getting to know a culture is not just about seeing as many temples as possible, it’s about having time to contemplate the age of the temple and the people who built it, and perhaps to even meet the people who maintain it.
This translates to lots more time actually seeing, experiencing and photographing the unique wildlife, culture and beauty of Japan, and less time seeing it wiz past the window of the train or car. When the days are full of new sights and great photo opportunities it’s so nice not to have to pack your suitcase every morning.
All of the Important Tour Details
Introducing Adam, Rika and Toshiki
Meet Your Photo Guides
Photography Tuition & Priorities
Is this Japan Winter photo tour right for you?
This winter photo tour of Japan is for anyone with firstly a love of adventure, and secondly a keen interest in photography. It doesn’t matter if you are a seasoned professional or a complete beginner, all levels of photographer are welcome; in fact, the diverse experiences of the group are an integral part of what makes these photography tours so much fun.
Experience as a photographer is by no means essential; we expect some participants will be very committed photographers while others will not. We think it’s more important that participants have in common the desire to experience the richness of a place and its people.
Physical fitness
A basic level of walking fitness is essential, but this is not a hiking or trekking tour, so nothing extreme will be required of you. We have several scenic walks in nature planned, but all have well-maintained pathways.
The walk to the Snow Monkey onsen is about 1km, and some of the hotels do not have lifts, so really the hardest physical test will be to climb some stairs occasionally.
To really experience Japanese culinary culture we will be sitting on the floor at low tables at some restaurants, and some of our hotels are traditional Ryokan style with tatami mat flooring and roll-out futon beds.
Generally, if you find the bed a little hard there are plenty of spare futons in the cupboard you can roll out on top to make it softer and many hotels offer a western bed option. Just let us know if you have any health issues or doubts and we will work around them
What about non-photographers?
Non-photographers are also very welcome on this tour, whether as a partner to a keen photographer or people who just love the slower pace of travel that this photography tour provides.
Japan is an intensely beautiful place with a deep rich culture in architecture, history, dress, language, religion and food, so there is never a shortage of things to do or explore. And the great thing about photographers is that we aim to be at the beautiful locations at the absolute best times to see them.
We must warn you though, an obsession with photographing people and beautiful places is highly addictive. You may begin as a non-photographer, thinking it’s not something for you, but by the end, this may have changed… You have been warned.
An itinerary created by photographers, not a travel agent
This itinerary has been researched on the ground in Japan by Adam and Toshiki, to ensure the best possible photographic opportunities.
As photographers we want the pace of our travel to allow time to find a suitable composition and whenever possible we want to be there when the light is at its best and stay when things are ‘working’.
The tour has also been carefully timed to avoid the busiest tourist periods in key locations. Adam & Toshiki know these locations because Adam has been there and photographed there before, and Toshiki lives there. This tour itinerary has been created for photographers, by photographers… not a travel agent.
Your camera gear.
There is really no limit to what camera gear you take other than your ability to carry it. Everything from Digital SLRs, professional and consumer, simple point-and-shoot cameras, even medium format digital and film to your iPhone.
Whatever level of camera equipment you have, we will ensure you get the most out of it. After you sign up for the tour we will send out a detailed recommended gear and packing list, and we are very happy to discuss the camera gear you have and how to best make it work for you. No specialist photographic gear is required and if you are happy with your camera gear, it will work even if it is an iPhone. Adam is happy to answer any questions you may have.
You should also note that all the images on this webpage were shot at focal lengths between 24mm and 200mm on a full frame camera, so no big lenses are required.
Born and raised in Japan, Rika moved to Perth Western Australia In 2006. Through conversations about her homeland Rika ended up designing, organising and booking several unique itineraries to Japan for friends that were a big success. Rika realised she had a passion for showcasing the beauty of Japan and Japanese culture and she had a real flare for creating amazing experiences. She decided to follow her dream, quit her day job and started Kuroko Boutique Tours.
Since then Rika has been designing and leading bespoke ‘one of a kind’ immersion tours. Her dedication to authenticity transforms each tour into a deep exploration of Japanese culture, tradition, landscape, and people. Rika, a former professional interpreter, also holds a bachelor’s degree in International Law.
About Rika Nishimura
orn in Osaka, Toshiki moved to Biei in central Hokkaido In 2012 inspired by the amazing photo opportunities he found there, he has been based there ever since.
While his main shooting field is the Daisetsu mountain range and the rolling hills at its foot, he also enjoys the journey to explore the interactions between nature and the native people of Hokkaido.
You can see more of Toshiki’s work HERE>>