As the title says, i'm an expat living in Tokyo (since 2010) which finally got granted for his birthday an old wish by his wife : happy owner of a Mavic Air 2 since yesterday evening, 30 sec flytime (just a take off inside my flat, as pretty everything around me is no-fly zone here ^^). As a travel/castle/garden/landscape photographer, this was a tool i really needed to expand my passion, and i hope i'll find a way to master asap this little beauty and find some nice spots not too far to be able to train my skills. Feel free to contact me if you have any locations in mind (west from the town prefered, as i'm in Setagaya ward). Wish everybody a happy time flying -safely- around !
Flying Expat in Tokyo
- Thread starter keio
- Start date
dirkclod
Well-Known Member
Welcome to the forum.
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input , photo's/video's you might post .
Don't be shy and ask anything if you can't find it by searching . ?
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input , photo's/video's you might post .
Don't be shy and ask anything if you can't find it by searching . ?
Thank you ! =) I read few times some threads on it in the last months, and always liked both the atmosphere of your community as well as the settings of the forum itself, so now that i've got a 'real' drone (had a hubsan x4 and an appcopter toys before, no comment -.- ) i thought i had to join. If no lockdown/restrictions to travel, i'll travel this month to Hokkaido, so maybe some footage to come soon.
Welcome to the forum from the deserts of Arizona! Enjoy.
Best of luck in your travel. Be safe!
I just had to cancel the daughter’s wedding in Lankgowi.
Best of luck in your travel. Be safe!
I just had to cancel the daughter’s wedding in Lankgowi.
Welcome to you from the wide-open spaces of Texas!
The MA2 is a fabulous machine for the beginner and the pro alike.
There are over 100,000 others of us from around the world here to help you gain skill as a pilot and photographer. We have many members in Japan, who can perhaps help you find places to fly.
Be sure to download and read the manual, and practice using the “Find My Drone” App. Chances are you will crash and perhaps lose your MA2. Just be sure you know how to retrieve it!
Glad to have you with us!
The MA2 is a fabulous machine for the beginner and the pro alike.
There are over 100,000 others of us from around the world here to help you gain skill as a pilot and photographer. We have many members in Japan, who can perhaps help you find places to fly.
Be sure to download and read the manual, and practice using the “Find My Drone” App. Chances are you will crash and perhaps lose your MA2. Just be sure you know how to retrieve it!
Glad to have you with us!
Sorry to hear that =(
Thank you ! Well, considering the no-fly zone nightmare area here, believe me i read a lot meanwhile !
Already doublechecked all settings especially the drone localization one. I just hope i won't need it though, i'm usually pretty careful with all my stuff especially if it's that expensive but one never knows...
mrjohnc1
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My wife and I did a nice trip to Japan during cherry blossom season 2016- see three images- I imagine flying around these sites in Kyoto are extremely illegal.
3 classics i visited and shot (with camera though) hundreds of time. =) Sadly, Sagano Chikurin (the forest bamboo of Arashiyama in the 3rd pic) got badly hurt from the obscene mass tourism in Kyoto within the last years, with bamboos being carved in and people walking anywhere incl. private properties in Japan. Even Gion itself became a no-fly no-pic zone last year, due to the very same tourists which are a real plague in terms of nuisance... but i digress, yes we have tons of nice scenaries, temples, castles, gardens etc here, and the country become really beautiful during the hanami and momijigari seasons (cherry blossom & red leaves). Back to the topic, yes, Kyoto is a DID and so a no-go for drones except if authorization from MLIT. Same goes for parks, beaches, events, etc. I'm all for safety, but i hate the extreme measures they always take in this country, without caring one bit for the lambda guys. Tokyo is a real nightmare : all parks forbidden even by night (used to go walking evenings in one large park perfect for this), riverbanks, lakes, shores, everywhere is red on the map, and even if you by train 1h from center, you still have 80% chances to fall on a no-fly zone not indicated on the official map, as there will always be some guy owning that forest, field, whatever (japanese law says that you don't own only the soil, but also underground and the sky over it, lol). I intend to write to the prime here, to bring his staff's attention on the subject (he's pretendly a drone supporter, at least in the professional domain) as i want an answer to my question : where do i fly ? I just find informations on the laws, where i can't fly, what i can't do, and white zones which aren't because depending on the good will of xyz. Only options are private owned places, 90% covered (hangars), relatively far from the city center and darn expensive (~5000¥ for 4h i.e.). I think the gov should set things right, and give us a chance to fly, even if it implies some sort of certification (like a safety exam or so). I think that some parks or even football fields should be selected to allow 1-2 days in the week drones, maybe even at night with limited altitude, whatever. Afterall, they're able to create no-fly zones for every airport, heliport, official building, military base, railroads, power lines, etc, so why not giving us ONE oasis in the city to train without paying 40 bucks ? Also, by doing so, if wisely chosen (ex: Yoyogi Koen or Shinjuku Gyoen) it would be double benefit : more park entries and regulated flights one only one zone, drastic diminution of rogue flights in the city, as if u take off from there, u can pan over most of the important POI's. Considering the current technogical locks as on DJI, they could define a radius + altitude to limit your range. Just a thought.
Dear Keio:
I read through your post twice. What an absolute tragedy and outrage. I cannot even imagine such a totalitarian system, but Japan is such an insular and small country (relatively so) that they can really put the clamps down on you and see you from just about everywhere. I don't imagine that there is any market at all for drones in Japan. If faced with such a situation, I would merely revert to traditional photography and encourage you to branch out into TIMELAPSE photography, which has occupied more and more of my time since 2015. I use drone footage as an adjunct to my videos which were mostly slide shows and videos, including plenty of time lapse. If you have seen any of stuff, you will see what I mean. You can really get a lot of joy from learning and producing timelapse videos. Another option would be to also learn dark sky photography, although there is a lot of ambient light pollution from the cities there. Miyajima might be a good place to find some dark skies. Both timelapse and Astro photography are challenging, rewarding, and beautifully creative adjuncts to standard photography. I can help you start with key web sites.
I read through your post twice. What an absolute tragedy and outrage. I cannot even imagine such a totalitarian system, but Japan is such an insular and small country (relatively so) that they can really put the clamps down on you and see you from just about everywhere. I don't imagine that there is any market at all for drones in Japan. If faced with such a situation, I would merely revert to traditional photography and encourage you to branch out into TIMELAPSE photography, which has occupied more and more of my time since 2015. I use drone footage as an adjunct to my videos which were mostly slide shows and videos, including plenty of time lapse. If you have seen any of stuff, you will see what I mean. You can really get a lot of joy from learning and producing timelapse videos. Another option would be to also learn dark sky photography, although there is a lot of ambient light pollution from the cities there. Miyajima might be a good place to find some dark skies. Both timelapse and Astro photography are challenging, rewarding, and beautifully creative adjuncts to standard photography. I can help you start with key web sites.
Very envious of you! I had a short work trip to Tokyo and greatly looking forward to a return when time and Covid-19 allow. Such a beautiful country and friendly people. And great coffee too!!
Enjoy your new viewpoint from above.
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Thanks for your suggestions, Dale, i appreciate. I wouldn't go that far to say they are a totalitarian system, as if it would be so i wouldn't live here. The problem is that whenever they face an issue of this type (drone, careless photography etc) they tend to go for the most effective way regardless of the majority of people doing their thing properly and safely. In the case of drones, things were fine until 2015, when a weirdo landed a drone with radioactive sand on the roof from the Prime to protest. Few months later, government hit with the infamous Drone Laws and here we are, with nowhere to fly, not even parks. For the photography ban in Kyoto, it's more of a local law, but i saw along the years "no pictures" shields/posters pop all around Japan's public places. Why ? There are 2 reasons for that which i will explain, but first let me tell you what i'm doing here.
I have a website (currently in development) since 2009, and circa 2.4TB data (photo/video) waiting to be treated and published. I visited around 85% from Honshu (the main isle), and went to Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa, only Hokkaido i didn't visit yet, which is planned for next month. So basically, i went almost everywhere in Japan, and focus mainly on landscape/architecture/street photography.
The 1st reason why photography ban increased in many places is because of retired Japanese hobby photographers. Sounds weird ? Let me explain. Those guys have nothing to do all the day, and squat temples, gardens etc for days with very expensive and voluminous material (we are talking here from 50-60cm white/grey lenses) disturbing visitors as they occupy the best viewing spots for hours without caring about anybody else (Japanese old people have often a... how can i politely say ? slight selfish way to behave towards others). Managements first tried it the smart way : they forbid tripod use, but it didn't help much : they still came and occupy spots for hours trying to get their precious shots from an insect on a leave from the tree 30m away on the other side of the garden... (did u felt some irony in my words ? you're completely right ^^). So as a result, they simply forbid pictures to maintain fluidity within the premices so that visitors can walk through and get out asap. I cannot count how many time, wherever i visited in Japan, i had to wait over 30 minutes to access a spot to take within a minute a dozen of pretty nice shots from something. That's also why they tend to put everywhere staff shouting in your years (politely but loudly, lol) to continue to go forward.
The 2nd reason why photography ban increased, is the behaviour of some tourists itself, especially from Asia, which became a nuisance all over the country. Fact is that economically, the government wants to increase the amount of visitors for financial reasons, but locals suffer a lot from it, especially in Kyoto. Now, it will be hard for anybody to understand how fragile and special some places are, as Kyoto for example, if they didn't went there. This is the reason why i stopped visiting Kyoto every year as i used to do for years. Locals had no choice with government promoting Japan and willing to get more and more visitors, so they did what they thought was best : they started photography ban, not only in temples or gardens, but also in streets. That's how in October 2019, the most famous area of Kyoto introduced photography ban in it's streets. In Japan, laws are different, so even a street might belong to a private owner and not to the municipality. I remember hundreds of occasions where i saw some asian tourists entering private property, opening the garden door to take some selfies standing on the grass and flowers, or hugging some sacred divinity statue, putting some soda can on its head, or grabbing the kimono of a geisha to stop her and having a photography, climbing over the rail of a 600 years old temple to take a picture on the wooden floor with muddy shoes... (this is all real, saw it with my own eyes).
This ban punished us (locals, expats and Japanese, respectuous photographers etc) for the behaviour of a few, and thats where i tried to make my point : there is one holy principle in Japanese society called 和 (wa) which means approximatively "harmony", and it overrides anything else. To preserve the "wa", they're willing to ignore the needs of the "good guys". No trouble with an anti-foreigner potential polemic : ban is for everybody, period. I faced this many times already, and it's a point i understand but never liked, like tatemae (another principle also to avoid any trouble).
However, after this long explanation which i hope wasn't too boring, back to the photography discussion. I must say, i'm only moderately interested in dark skies photography, but i enjoy doing night photography as i have pretty good material for low light conditions (D750 + Tamron 15-30mm f2.8/Nikkor 35mm f1.8). Similar to you, the drone was also meant to add a new vision to my shootings, and i intended to try the fantastic new timelapse system which the MA2 proposes (8k hyperlapse !). What annoys me most in this whole story is that except indoor expensive places, crowded as hell, there is not much possibility around here as even the white marked fly zones of the map i noted, became local regulated no-fly zones within the last years (i checked them individually, and i'm not really wondering about it, as with so few possibilities and such a terrific ban, i guess every pilot went flying there until it became a nuisance for the locals). I guess i'll have an expensive and 2h train trip each time i want to train...
Haha, glad you enjoyed it ! =) I come from a little town in France (24000 souls) and never liked cities until i came to Tokyo. I so much liked it that i return to my country and sold all i have, then came back here. Being married with a Japanese helps for sure, lol. If you intend to come back, i highly suggest you do so in mid-April or mid-October, trust me, you'll see another Japan. Sakura and momiji seasons are really worth it.
Your explanation was not boring at all. In fact, very interesting.
Holy Cow! (I cleaned that up). I just cannot imagine such a depressing environment for photographers, and it was caused by photographers. My first good camera was Japanese (original Nikon F) and I have many editions since then. Yes, I have the D750 plus the Nikon f/1.28- 14-24mm and I am stopping there! I got off the merry-go-round of buying the newest camera with the D750 edition. I was able to resist the 4 x3 micro craze. At nearly 82, my wife will have a lot of gear to put on e-bay when I am gone. (I am in good health now). You are being very polite but having been in Japan twice (I did a solo trip Feb. 2014 during the record snow storm to get a mileage run and photograph the snow monkeys at Jigokudani). I found the people extremely aggressive, pushy, and inconsiderate. They would not yield to move away for my photos. Very pushy on the subway cars, elevators, etc. I think the crowding on to a small island and the intense competition for school and work contributes to a lot of stress in their lives. You and I could certainly have a very long conversation.
I should add that of all the bad actors in tourism, the Chinese take the cake. On our visit to Santorini, they would pose for wedding and other photos with professional photographer on private roof tops with blue domes, while the resident inside yelled at them to get off their roof! The refused. They would dwell for hours on a spot, refusing to cede the view to others. The only solution was to clone them out in Photoshop.
I have evolved, in my drone photography, to adapt in the following way...go straight up as fast as possible, get my shots, and come back down. My excursions only go for 1 to 2 minutes, and VLOS if possible. My clips are edited to about 3-5 seconds. I stopped doing long distance flights, except when I am in a wide open area such as in our summer trips out to the west of the US. Soon we are going to Montana where there are plenty of open spaces.
With respect to web sites- I have been happy with SmugMug for both photos and videos, and Vimeo for video. www.daledavisphotography.smugmug.com has many of my travels and videos, and Vimeo site
Look for Japan trip and Snow Monkey trip there.
I wish you the best. It has gotten to be a very challenging world out there.
Dale
Glad u weren't bored. ;-) Well, with the years i learned how to avoid such problems as good i could, by organizing my visits differently (especially in Kyoto). So you have the diamond of all lenses (for landscape), sadly too expensive for me, hence my Tamron (which wasn't cheap either) but i'm thinking of changing for a prime instead, as i'm not satisfied at all with it : despite the awesome reviews of this lense, the distorsion is hideous (even after lightroom correction) and flares as soon as the sun is out, with or without filters... I bought the fotodiox system (full pack) and let it ship from the states, it helped a bit but it's really inconvenient compaired to my old dslr system (screw filters on a 11-16mm tokina, best uwa i ever had !).
Back to Japan and photographs, i feel you, Dale... I'm regulary bumped in too, and despite being alone and relatively quickly shooting, i always manage somehow to get some nobel prize winner to enter my fov at the right moment and not willing to move even when they notice they disturb. /shrug
As for the tourists part, darn ! i tried being moderate and vague by saying "asian" but you got it, i was obviously speaking from the folks which received a "good manners" pamphlet at their airport before taking off, with the hope they will behave accordingly (which isn't the case obviously ^^). The story of the wedding shooting is exactly what happened with my story of 600 years old temple wooden floor : chinese couple with a photograph team came, cross the railing despite the 'no entry' sign without even taking off their shoes and japanese around were too polite (or fearful ? again the no trouble thing...) to say anything. So, as a "local" japanized guy, i did what i thought was right with a "HEY!" and pointing at the sign, and they got out half-frightened half-disappointed, lol. I was sorry for the couple, i get it, but rules are rules and respect is important. Also, i'm completely fanatic lover of old stuff, so seeing this floor being soiled, no way... Fortunately, they're not all this way, but ...
Now to your work, WOW ! I had a view at your timelapse which was really nice first, but then by visiting your page, your pictures are really HQ in all possible way ! I love their sharpness, exposition as well as their framing. I wish i would be that good, i still struggle a lot with mine, especially daytime when sunny (i focused a lot on becoming good with night shootings, but got somehow bad at taking pics by day if not clowdy, lol). Yes, i would definitely love to talk with you too, Japan, photography, drones, u name it ! ;-)
Don't feel bad. I've spent all of my retirement time learning photography. I devoted a lot of time and some money in software learning LRTimelapse (www.LRTimelapse.com), and Hyperlapse, then got into drones. Along the way I have taken tons of on line courses from Colin Smith (www.photoshopCAFE.com), including huge course (?62 lessons) in Photoshop. It is a passion with me. The drone just added to the stuff I had to learn. Feel free to put my e-mail on your list and I'll try to help with recommendations at any time.
I have several longer (like 34 minutes) videos on Vimeo on Greece, Iceland, and our trip to see gorillas in Africa (Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda).
Dale
[email protected]
I see. =) It's amazing to see a fellow traveller with similar passion and such skills. I sadly had for too long crappy stuff (D3000) and only changed to pro material around 2015, so i'm still experimenting sometimes and as an autodidact isolated here, can only rely on myself and the web to progress. As mentionned, i travelled a lot also, nearly everywhere in Japan and also in a bunch of places abroad (Ontario, Seychelles, Maldives, French Polynesia, Malta, Taiwan, etc). Pity i didn't have the drone back then... Thanks for the email, feel free to ask me for tips or spots to shoot in Japan anytime ! I hope you'll visit Japan again once this darn crisis is over, the country needs tourists again, lol.
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