In some ways, my Japan Photo Workshops/Tours have returned to pre-covid settings. I’m happy to inform you that my Private Photography Workshops are filling up, and my October 2021 - Essence of Autumn Photo Workshop is fully booked. I am hopeful borders will reopen in 2021, but we might have to reschedule the workshop for autumn 2022. When my participants arrive, they will enjoy Japanese Maples in red, yellow, orange, and the rare purple Japanese maple tree; our route is new and spans six prefectures; it is a highland cross country expedition; this new route took me five years to scout. We cross the Japanese Valley of the Dragons and visit Snow Monkeys, the UNESCO site, Mt. Fuji, the Fuji Five Lakes, some of Niigata's milky white hot springs, rice terraces in the golden hour; we will spend two nights at the Japanese Ryokan that inspired Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, and visit a Buddhist temple where the head monk is a friend, and we can photograph national treasures. It's a cross-country adventure, so we will have many locations and power spots to visit during this Japan Photography Workshop Adventure. My Hokkaido Photography Wildlife Expedition 2022 is also fully booked. Participants will photograph Mt. Fuji, Japan's oldest Shinto shrine complex, which is said to be a vortex power spot. In the region, we will visit Matsumoto Castle, an original Samauri Castle. We will spend a couple of days visiting with snow monkeys, then we fly to Japan's most northern island Hokkaido to photograph winter wonderland minimalist landscapes, and we will take a ship out on pack-ice where we will visit with the Steller’s Sea Eagles, White-tailed Eagles, and the Glaucous gull which is the second-largest gull on our planet, Ravens, are also abundant feeding on pack ice. In the Kushiro region, we will spend time with the Red-crowned Cranes. In the Nemuro area, hopefully, the largest herd of Sika Deer on the planet will be gathered for a portrait; in the region, we have dozens of other bird species such as the Shima Enaga, Blakiston's Fish Owl, the pygmy woodpecker, the Eurasian nuthatch, the great spotted woodpecker, whooper swans, the Japanese wagtail, the Mongolian gull Larus mongolicus, the Red-breasted merganser, Ural Owls, and for land the Ezo red Fox, Ezo red squirrel among others. Every one of these animals represents one of the First Nations People the Ainu’s Kamuy or spiritual guardians/ divine being, and each of the landmarks has Ainu folklore associated with it, and I am close with the First Nations People of Canada, America, and Japan, so I am conversant with the legends and local folklore of all these cultures. I have fully booked my Hokkaido Birding Wildlife Photo Adventure for the past five years.
To maintain participant safety on all my Japan Photography workshops/tours, however, I have had to modify how I conduct my workshops. Formerly, I allowed up to 10 people to join my workshops. I had 3 - 4 luxury SUVs to provide business class experiences for all my clients, but guaranteeing the safety of participants, co-leaders, and lodging staff creates an enormous amount of variables. This meant reducing the number of members in my workshops from 10 to 6 to maintain the all-inclusive aspect of my Japan Photo Workshop Tours. My previous experience with pandemics and PPEs comes into play because I have experience in how to maintain safety and reduce risk. And each participant in my photo workshops will receive a PPE kit on arrival. All personal PPE kits are curated by me and will include protective equipment for peak protection, following my directions. This sensitivity to potential risks means I have to inspect vehicles, all persons my group comes into contact with, foyers, reception, lobby, and dining rooms at the lodgings; I must also check each guest's room before they enter, of course with sanitizer in hand. We will only be staying at lodgings I know and trust so that I can relax for meals, as I already know how all food is handled, prepared, and served. Until social distancing eases, I am dedicated to maintaining the same level of safety precautions pre-covid so everyone, clientele, family, and workshop leaders will all experience the Japan Photo Workshop of a lifetime and return home securely with a nearly 0% risk of contracting the coronavirus, as my Hokkaido February 2020 clients did.
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