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?

just over 11 years

11 years!

videographer, photographer, knows some really cool spots

and  that's what we are going to explore

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