NIKON Z 8 (26mm, f/2.8, 1/500 sec, ISO200)
Some more from our first trip to Japan. This blog post is about our visit of one of the most beautiful parks in Japan located in Kanazawa.
The 20th of November but still too early for peak autumn colours. In Austria the best time to see the autumn foliage is around end of October. Here it seems it’s at least one month later. It was still very beautiful though.
NIKON Z 8 (32mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO360)
NIKON Z 8 (47mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO640)
NIKON Z 8 (65mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO320)
The Keroku-en Garden is one out of the three famous gardens in Japan. The garden is massive and I think we only covered a small section of it. It’s not like the parks I know from Austria. Many of those are next to castles and they have a very strict geometric design. You are always aware of that you are in something man made. Japanese gardens are like landscapes or better dozens of different landscapes. Even though they are meticulously planned you are fooled to think that you are in nature. It’s just beautiful.
But it is even better than nature as it is maintained with a lot of manpower to ensure that it always looks its best. We saw dozens of gardeners cutting trees and bushes or collecting fallen leaves from the moss ground. Those gardens may look very natural but the maintenance is backbreaking. This is not something we could even try to accomplish at home. I blame it on the harsher climate but the truth is that we simply do not have the dedication.
NIKON Z 8 (56mm, f/4, 1/250 sec, ISO400)
NIKON Z 8 (68mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO200)
NIKON Z 8 (57mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO1250)
NIKON Z 8 (40mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO1400)
NIKON Z 8 (24mm, f/8, 1/50 sec, ISO400)
Maybe time for some gear talk. In the last couple of years I started to shoot a lot more with prime lenses. Not because I think that they are superior but rather because I prefer a small camera around my neck and most primes are significantly smaller and lighter than zoom lenses. The Nikon Z 26/2.8 was my most used lens on this trip and also on my second vacation to Japan. It’s impressive what a single focal length can do but for a park like this I will always prefer to shoot with a zoom lens.
As soon as we entered the garden I switched to the Z 24-120/4 S. This lens is just perfect for that. It has a great range and it even has some close up capabilities but there are no flowers to capture in November.
Talking about gear: With a big and heavy camera you look like a professional photographer or simply a weirdo in most parts of the world. People switched to their smartphones to record their memories a long time ago. Japan is different. I saw a lot of people with big cameras and lenses and even tripods. Most of them were older but I also saw a young woman with a Nikon Z7 plus Z 24-70/2.8 S. In Japan photography is still taken seriously.
NIKON Z 8 (33mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO450)
NIKON Z 8 (74mm, f/4, 1/50 sec, ISO160)
NIKON Z 8 (46mm, f/4, 1/50 sec, ISO100)
We loved the attention to detail that you can see everywhere in this garden and mostly everywhere in Japan. This attention of detail is what also made so many of their products to stand out. No matter if we talk about cars, motorbikes, audio gear or cameras. Japan is famous for looking at every small detail and every chance to improve a product. That’s how they practically dominated some markets and practically eliminated competing products. The most obvious sector is cameras. There really is no competition nowadays. Leica has made the clever decision to stop to try to compete on the technology front but to focus in user experience and luxury feel. Hasselblad did the same in the medium format.
It’s a similar story with motorcycles. Nobody buys a Harley Davidson for performance or a BMW, KTM or Moto Guzzi for reliability. This match has been lost to Japan a long time ago. Strangely those foreign brands have a big reputation and following in Japan. I guess we always want to have something exotic instead of the product right in front of us.
NIKON Z 8 (31.5mm, f/5.6, 1/50 sec, ISO80)
NIKON Z 8 (120mm, f/5.6, 1/50 sec, ISO140)
We could not see any flowers in the park but plenty of citrus fruits on trees. So I guess I can still blame it on the climate that my garden doesn’t look like this one. 😉
Kanazawa is a great place to visit. Not just because of this garden or the house of the Samurai or because of the part of the town that looks a little bit like Kyoto. Kanazawa also has a fantastic seafood market that still caters more for the locals. This is a place to visit if you need a rest from the masses in Kyoto though I’m afraid it might get busier since it was on the National Geographic list of places to visit in 2025.
NIKON Z 8 (24mm, f/4, 1/250 sec, ISO560)