NIKON Z 8 (24mm, f/8, 1/500 sec, ISO280)

Japan, again. This is my 10th time in Japan but it’s the first time I’m here on vacation.

Two full weeks to explore Osaka, Kyoto, Kanazawa and Tokyo. But first there is a long flight Vienna – Munich – Tokyo (Haneda) and a train ride to get to our starting point which is Osaka.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (14mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO640)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (14mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO1250)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO2500)

We flew Lufthansa. I took my Miles and More points to pay for the tickets. Economy class but the leg room was gigantic. Those are by far the best economy seats on this plane and the good thing is that we will have the very same seats on our way back home.

Our trip started after breakfast. We took the taxi to the airport and flew to Munich and after  a two hour break we boarded for Tokyo. Thanks to the long flight and the 8 hour time difference we landed at 9am the next day. This is not a good time because you can’t move in your hotel room before 3pm. A real problem but not in Japan. We decided to simply take the train to Osaka. That way we use the time in an intelligent way as we planned to start our trip in Osaka anyway.

We got off the plane, took the train to Shinagawa, bought lunch boxes and our Shinkansen tickets to Osaka. It’s a 512km train ride but it only takes a little over 2 hours. Great! And the best thing is that the Nozomi express has an interval of a couple of minutes so there is not need to plan ahead. It’s’ like using the subway.

 FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/5.6, 1/850 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO640)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/4, 1/500 sec, ISO5000)

Here comes our train. I wish I had taken a better picture but I was not fast enough and I haven’t put my camera into continues shooting mode. The Nozomi is still very fast when it enters the station so you need to be really quick.

We had a lot of luggage but no problem to fit it over our seats. If you have very big suitcases you have to place them in a designated area but normal sized luggage should cause no problems.

The train ride was smooth but Mount Fuji was hidden behind clouds (as usual). My wife slept most of the time. I was awake but set an alarm to ensure that we won’t miss our station.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO500)
NIKON Z 8 (24mm, f/8, 1/500 sec, ISO280)

When we reached Kyoto which is the last station before Shin Osaka I woke up my wife in order to get prepared to leave the train. When we entered Kyoto station I took a picture of the Nozomi headed to Tokyo. This picture really highlights the long nose of those magnificent trains. The best looking is the Hayabusa but the Nozomi looks pretty amazing too.

It’s good that I love those trains because this is our first vacation without a car. I can’t imagine any other country on the planet where I would do that. So two weeks of public transport and walking but I had to bring my new Nikon Z8 and a couple of lenses plus my trusty Fuji X-Pro2 plus two small primes in case I got sick of the big camera. Spoiler alert: After day one I packed my X-Pro2 away and took all pictures with the Z8.

NIKON Z 8 (24mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO320)
NIKON Z 8 (50mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO1600)

It’s a public transport vacation but we took taxis now and then. We took a taxi from Shin Osaka station to Umeda station. Of course we could have taken a train but we were too tired to deal with our luggage in an overcrowded local train.

Our hotel is located directly at the Umeda station which is the most important train station in Osaka. This will come in handy for our day trips to Kyoto but there is another great feature of this hotel: It’s in the same building as Yodobashi Camera Umeda. Yodobashi camera is the biggest electronic store on the planet and this particular store is the second largest of the chain. The only bigger location is Yodibashi Camera Akiba in Tokyo which we will also visit two weeks from now. More of Yodobashi later. So I can take the elevator down to the best electronic store on the planet. How amazing is that!

Here is the view from our room looking down at Umeda station. More regarding the view from our hotel room in my next blog entry.

NIKON Z 8 (50mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO400)