The fact that you’re flying hundreds of miles away from home. To spend the next few days with your best friend is a celebration of love.
The countdown till you fly might be years, months, or even a few days from now. Doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you’re going to Japan with the love of your life!
Are you in Vacation research mode? 🔎
You’re skimming through blogs and social media posts. Googling the web for, “top 5 things to do in Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka” hopeful to find something fun and unique to do for your next romantic getaway to Japan.
My advice is…
Don’t worry about the best restaurant to eat at, or the must-visit tourist spots. Of course you should have an itinerary on hand, or a saved list of places to visit.
But to truly get a unique and fun experience you have everything you need right now.
Staying in love requires a deep friendship.
Have you heard of this study by a University of Kansas professor about friendships? He defined how long it typically takes to move through the deepening stages of friendship.
“50 hours of time together to move from mere acquaintance to casual friend. 90 hours to go from that stage to ‘friend’ status, and more than 200 hours before you can consider someone your close friend.”
Jeffery Hall, Associate Professor of Communication Studies
This means time spent hanging out, joking around, playing video games and the like. Hours spent working together just don’t count as much, Hall’s study found.
If you search instead for, “how many hours does it take to fall in love.” Suddenly no one has any answers, because love is complicated, but really simple at the same time.
You have passed the 200 hour milestone a long time ago, and you don’t need research to tell you that the more activities you do together the stronger your love will be.
Travelling together for the first time is a milestone achievement in any relationship, but we’re talking about the best way to celebrate your love for each other while in Japan, or any destination for that matter.
A Couple Activity should bring you closer to each other.
Date nights, movie nights, you get the gist. A couple’s activity is just quality time you spend with each other.
Me and Peter have been dating for the past 7 years now. We have been living together under the same roof for almost 2 years now.
We’ve camped under the stars at Harrison Lake. Travelled to Asia twice. Started a business together.
But we’ve never taken a professional photoshoot together.
Until now…
Among all the things we’ve done together. This photoshoot was the most fun, and was definitely was the highlight of our recent trip to Japan.
Doing a professional photoshoot together feels like a milestone achievement in our relationship.
You see the best couple activity is something that makes you both fall deeper in love with each other. Reminds you of the love and joy between the both of you, and leaves you with memories you can cherish forevermore.
Every time I look at our Tokyo photoshoot, I find my way back to the love and warmth I felt that day.
This photoshoot we took in Japan was the first time for us, and won’t be our last.
Photoshoots are a celebration.
You know why when you try to search locally for photographers that do couple shoots, you’ll click on their website and see photography packages like
- Pre-wedding, engagement, wedding, etc.
It’s because doing a photoshoot is a celebration, it’s not stressful or tiring. It’s really just pure fun.
You’ll have to hold hands, kiss a lot, and look longingly into each others eyes.
Also you’ll have to make each other laugh, and embrace each other too.
If these sound like fun things to you then you’re ready to celebrate your love in Japan with the best couple activity!
How To Book a Photoshoot in Japan
To squeeze a professional photoshoot in with both your budget and travel itinerary will be tricky, but you know that it will be worth every penny when you see how beautiful it all turns out.
I hired a local photographer through a website called PhotoMyTokyo. I highly recommend them as the whole process was very smooth and professional, plus their English-friendly.
The booking process is simple and can be broken down to 3 steps:
Step 1: Choose your Photographer
On PhotoMyTokyo you can browse through the local photographer’s portfolio. I specifically chose Bruna because I found that I felt inspired by her photos the most. Although this is optional, I find that looking through their work helps me understand what I want for my own photoshoot.
Let me just say that Bruna is amazing at what she does. Even though we were late and she had another shoot right after ours, Bruna was friendly and professional. She made the whole experience fun and special. She has her own website where she sells her own work and services as a freelancer. I highly recommend her.
Step 2: Choose your Package & Save the Date/Time
There are 3 main packages to choose from.
We ended up doing the One Hour Package. Initially, we had picked and paid the deposit for the Half Hour Package.
I emailed them a week before the agreed date that I’ll like to increase the time and all I had to do was bring ¥3000 more.
Step 3: Emails emails emails.
After you confirm the date/time, package, and your preferred photographer on their website. You’ll then be emailed by their concierge on the next steps.
Booking with them was a great experience. They were fast and clear in their explanations of their different packages offered. They even sent you a PDF outfit guide.
Photoshoots doesn’t need to be professional.
Imagine you’re walking with your boo around a beautiful temple in Japan. It’s crowded but you came early enough to avoid a huge crowd.
You’re in awe of the beautiful scenery and historical sight around you, then you spot a potential photo op location with minimal traffic.
You think to yourself, that would make a nice picture. You do a quick scan of the area to see if there’s anything that you could prop your phone against.
Nothing in sight, so put your bag on the ground, and lean your phone against it.
Set it on self-timer.
3…
2…
1…
SNAP!
You check it and y’all are cute, but also you know you could have done a lot better with a tripod.
Me and Peter are no strangers to the camera, we both share a love for photography and aesthetics.
That’s why when we travel we always carry a tripod around to take cute pictures together. You ever see those couples setting up a tripod and then posing together? Well that’s us.
What To Expect?
Just some things that will help you when booking your first photoshoot.
Theme/Location/concept
If you don’t know what feel or look you’re going for yet, don’t worry. Before the day of your shoot, you and your photographer would have already been talking about this topic to a certain extent. They are professional so they know hidden gem locations that will get that feel that you’re looking for. If you’re looking for something specific, search it on Pinterest and get some inspiration.
Outfit/costume
Depending on the season you’ll want to go for certain colour palettes. The hard and fast rule is that don’t wear complicated patterns, unless you intentionally want to put focus on the outfit instead of the subjects.
The day of our photoshoot
Things are not going to go according to plan and that’s okay.
The hours before our photoshoot was chaotic, but we somehow made it work.
Also the day before, we cancelled our plans to go to Mt. Fuji the day before and booked a room last minute at the APA Hotel Resort near Tokyo Disneyland.
The reason for skipping Mt. Fuji was that I hadn’t accounted for the travel time it would take us to reach Mt. Fuji from Kyoto Station.
I had assumed it would be easy but it was not, the trip there would take 5 hours, which is time we can’t afford if we wanted to make it to our photoshoot in Tokyo the next day.
Thankfully we were flexible with our plans because if we hadn’t chosen to lose money on our booked Mt. Fuji accommodations, I don’t think this photoshoot would have been possible.
The day of our photoshoot, it rained.
About 2 weeks before, me and Peter actually booked hair appointments with SOZO Ginza, and they did an amazing job with Peter’s hair.
But I had to skip my appointment and split up with Peter so that I could drop our luggage off at Suidobashi Sequence Hotel, then make my way to our Kimono Rental place by 1PM, which we initially booked with the Ginza location, but had to move to Shibuya because I changed the location of the shoot last minute.
The idea to do a Shibuya Crossing photoshoot literally hit me while I was getting ready the morning of the shoot.
I honestly rented a Kimono because I didn’t know what outfit to wear for the shoot. Also I didn’t have time to do my hair in the morning, so going with a Kimono rental would kill two birds with one stone.
There’s more but I’ll either write another post or edit this to be longer.
A Final Word
Before we say goodbye. I just wanted to say thank you for your time and support for treasured paths. This is officially our first post and I hope to deliver a new post every Monday from now on for all of you.
I hope to keep becoming a better writer and gather more experiences to share with you.
With Gratitude,
Deanna
