Travel videos on Japan?

I found a ton of great videos on Tokyo and Kyoto on YouTube before our trip to Japan in March. Japan-Guide has some good general videos. Paolo from Tokyo also has a lot of content, although some of it is food focused again.

Look for two programs called Core Kyoto and #Tokyo from NHK, it's the Japanese equivalent of PBS, very nicely done and in English too.

You can find free episodes on demand on NHK's website: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/program/video/hashtagtokyo/?type=tvEpisode&

Thank you! I will take a look.

I like Paolo from Tokyo. He can be a bit gushing, but he does find some places others miss, and his videos about "a day in the life" of various Japanese workers are very interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCixD9UbKvDxzGNiPC_fgHyA/videos

I'm following this thread with interest, as I'm going to Japan in October (second visit, but first visit in 22 years!).

Harold, this is also my second visit to Ja[pan. The last was 20 years ago, and I am sure things have changed! I am in particular looking for inspiration on what to see in Kyoto.

One thing I can definitely recommend in Kyoto is the Museum of World Peace. It's out near Kinkaku-Ji Shrine. It's a fantastic museum and covers a fair amount of World War II with an honest look at some of the Japanese aggression. We were quite surprised, as we walked around, just how honest the assessment was. We commented at many points that it was hard to know what the Japanese government thought of it all.

And that's not to say the museum of overly-critical of Japan. There were plenty of other frank assessments of political actions over the ensuing decades, including the US in regards to Iraq.

But as to World War II...and the expansionism that fueled part of Japan's desire for land...the museum gave a staggering and unflinching look at the war. I highly recommend it. There is an American graduate student who hangs out on the top floor...I can't recall his name...but if he's there, talk to him. He's got a ton of information on how the museum came to be.

And then one other thing. I was shrined out after about 3 shrines in Kyoto. One day we went over to Kobe to tour the Disaster Reduction Museum, memorializing the 1995 Hanshin earthquake. There's an additional exhibit on the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The whole building is fascinating...video of the events, information on recovery and rebuilding efforts etc. But the most interesting part was the insight it all gave into Japanese earthquake preparation mentality. It's not a museum I can imagine in the US.

Both of the more unusual sites I toured from Kyoto are in my blog if you want transit details etc. My blog in linked to my bio.

Thank you, Valerie. The WW2 museum sounds very interesting, as does the earthquake-focused one. I will take a look at your blog right now!

Lola,
Any website or other source of info on Kyoto will tell you what you need to do. Kyoto was the historical capital of Japan, hundreds of years ago, and was one of the few cities in Japan with cultural treasures that was not fire-bombed by the US in WW2, thus historical and cultural artifacts hundreds of years old are still intact.

I have been to Kyoto before, and am just trying to prioritize what to see in 3 days, since this will be my husband’s first visit and his introduction to Japan. Fushimi Inari is first on the list, along with the fall-color walk on the Philosophers’ Path, and the shrine with the white horse ( whose name I forget but I can find it).

I have three guidebooks for Kyoto, but would like more pictures to help me choose.

Swiss photographer Patrick Rohr created a 3 episodes documentary of different parts of Japan guided by locals, also diving into cultural exchanges. Really worth seeing. It was produced by Swiss TV SRF. I do not know if it is available in English.

Wolters World on Youtube