Best Photo Tours in Tokyo

In some cities, neon museums are often tourist attractions and what's better than a museum? A city, and in Japan you can find it. It's Tokyo, the city of neon lights, extravagant cuisine, towering skyscrapers and colourful culture - a photographer's dream.

Around every corner you'll find a reason to take a great picture. It's like a never-ending walk that awakens the senses between innovation and tradition. If you are looking for the best photo tours to add to your list of things to see and do in Tokyo, this post is for you.

Take note of these kinds of tours, especially if you're visiting the Japanese city at the end of winter. Sensoji and its picturesque gardens will be in full bloom and you'll be wearing a kimono or hakama to look authentically Japanese.

Looking for an immersive experience among your thingsto see and do in Tokyo in spring? This tour has your name written all over it.

Your photo adventure will often start at a kimono shop in Asakusa. After getting ready, the concrete jungle will lend its spaces for a beautiful photo session.

The tour often passes the Sensoji Temple, the famous Nakamise Street, the Azuma Bridge, the curious Sapporo Monument, as well as the Tokyo SkyTree.

In fact, this tour not only deserves to be among the best photo tours in Tokyo, but also among the most essential guided tours in the Japanese capital.

It's a 3-hour tour with a professional photographer and a guide, dressed in traditional clothing, who will explain the historical importance of the region to you and/or your group of maximum 6 people.

At the end of the tour, you can conclude the city tour with a ride in a traditional Japanese rickshaw for an additional fee.

Interesting details

• Price: From €82.
• Duration: 3 hours and 30 minutes.
• Time: From 7pm onwards.
• What the tour usually includes: guide by professional photographer, kimono or hakama rental. Walking tour of Asakusa and the surrounding area.
• Means of transport: on foot
• Pros: it is an evening tour, usually offered at 19:00 hours which makes it convenient if you want to do some shopping. The guides take you through the main streets and those less visited by tourists, so you get to know the heart of Asakusa. In addition to the expertise of the professional photographer, the guides are usually historians or knowledgeable about Japanese culture.
• Cons: Not available in English.

The metropolis of Tokyo is a huge expanse of concrete stretching for miles in all directions, with scattered urban centres. With this type of tour you will be able to capture the best sights of Shimbashi and Ginza, such as the Tokyo Tower, with your camera.

Another scenery often visited by this type of tour is Shibuya, home to the Cherry Orchard, the iconic Meiji Shrine and Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, a national park that will not leave you indifferent, among others.

You will be part of a group of up to 6 people, who will receive tips on photographic technique and composition from your local expert as you capture images to remember.

Interesting details

• Price: From €160.
• Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes.
• What the tour usually includes: Transport to and from the hotel. Personalised itinerary, advice from a professional photographer. Tripod (if necessary). Guide to get to know Tokyo.
• Means of transport: on foot.
• Pros: You receive photographic advice. By the end of the tour, experts and novices will have explored basic image composition with extraordinary scenery in the background.
• Cons: Only available in English. Only transport to and from the hotel is included, but not to the various stops on the itinerary. Timetable is often not flexible (often only offered at 10:00).

Under the moonlight the city of neon signs comes to life. With this night photography tour you will get tips on image composition and techniques to get the most out of your camera with artificial and natural lighting at night.

As you visit landmarks in Shinjuku and Shibuya, such as the Shibuya Crossing, better known as Shibuya Crossing, or the lively nightlife district surrounding Japan's busiest train station in the Shinjuku district, your group of up to 6 people will capture the best images of the evening.

If the problem is the tripod, don't worry, you can rent one for a supplement on this type of tour. Enjoy the experience and let yourself be carried away by this vibrant city.

However, if you are visiting Tokyo in winter, don't forget to bring warm clothes, as it can get cold.

Interesting details

• Price: From €160
• Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes.
• Time: From 19:00 hours.
• What the tour may include: Guided tour by professional photographer. Night walking tour of Shinjuku and Shibuya. The possibility to rent a tripod for an extra charge.
• Means of transport: on foot
• Pros: at night among the neon signs, traffic lights and moonlight, the photos will have unparalleled colours, textures and contrasts, perfect for a 24-70 mm lens, especially for the basic advice you will receive from your veteran professional photographer.
• Cons: Not available in English.

Leave your photographic beginnings behind with this kind of tour. An expert professional photographer will take you by the hand to explain creative ways to take street photos in the nocturnal scenery of Tokyo's most colourful districts.

In addition to understanding the ideal settings for street photography, you will practice setting up panoramic shots of traffic, as well as using the use of reflections, shadows and contrasting silhouettes.

This is a master class in photography to get the most out of your camera at night, with or without a tripod.

The tour usually starts in Shinjuku, one of Tokyo's busiest areas. There your small group of maximum 4 people will explore the smoky and bustling Omoide Yokocho, before diving into the pleasure district of Kabukicho.

After examining your surroundings from the gut, through camera lenses, you'll travel by underground to Shibuya, where you'll visit an old building full of pipes and ducts, a scene straight out of cyberpunk cinema.

At the end, the tour ends in Dogenzaka, another neon-lit neighbourhood, perfect for capturing the passage through the Shibuya ditch.

Make a note of these kinds of tours among your things to see and do in Tokyo at Christmas, when St Nicholas Eve and New Year's Eve add a lighting spectacle you'll want to capture on camera.

Interesting details

• Price: From €234
• Duration: 3 hours.
• What the tour may include: The advice and instruction of a veteran professional photographer in Japanese culture. A visit to various tourist attractions in Kabukicho, Shibuya and Shinjuku.
• Means of transport: on foot
• Pros: The photography workshop alone is reason enough to take this tour. Add to that the guide through Tokyo's famous and intricate streets, a guide to explore the city at your leisure at the end of the tour and a pleasant companion.
• Cons: Not available in English.

Tokyo is a metropolis that perfectly combines Japanese aesthetics and tradition with a futurism that is as retro as it is modern. The city seduces photographers with its neon lights, graffiti-filled alleyways and smoky shops.

On this kind of tour, your experience is personalised. Let your operator know the sights you like or the kind of images you want to record with your camera and they'll organise everything for you.

When the day of the tour arrives, the adventure often begins at your hotel, where you will meet your photographer guide and then visit a diverse set of areas, from the famous Omotesando Avenue, the Shibuya zebra crossing to intricate streets between Shinjuku and Shibuya with fantastic photographic appeal such as the fashionable Harajuku.

This type of tour is quite comprehensive. It is done on foot and you will walk for hours (wear comfortable shoes) to take pictures at the right time. As you walk around the city, your guide will share stories and anecdotes about the place.

Another interesting aspect of these tours is that it suits expert photographers who want to get the most out of their lens, amateur photographers with modest cameras, those who only carry smartphones or influencers.

My advice is to put this tour at the top of your list of things to see and do in Tokyo in 3, 5 or 7 days. After the advice you receive, you'll be ready to explore the city on your own.

Interesting details

• Price: From €395.
• Duration: 6 hours.
• What the tour may include: transport to and from your hotel. Personalised itinerary, advice from a professional photographer. Tripod (if necessary). Guide to get to know Tokyo.
• Means of transport: on foot.
• Pros: It is complete. The groups are small (maximum 4 people). In the end the experience goes far beyond being just a photo tour, it is an immersive tour of famous avenues and alleys treasured by the locals and forgotten by the crowded tours.
• Cons: Only available in English. Does not include snacks or transportation.

Whether you're travelling alone, as a couple, with friends or family, it's hard to capture spontaneous photos while truly enjoying the moment, particularly when time is short, such as when planning to Tokyo in 2 Days: everything you need to know.

Don't leave it to a stranger on the street, the solution is simpler: hire the services of a personal photographer.

When you choose this type of service, a local photographer will advise you on the most convenient route to the sites you like, and then go with you or your group to take the pictures.

This is a 60-minute tour of, for example, the gamers' paradise of Odaiba, where you can stroll through the fabulous National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation and across Tokyo Bay on the Rainbow Bridge.

Being a shorter tour and having a photographer on hand to immortalise the visit, this tour could well be one of the things to do in Tokyo with kids.

Details of interest

• Price: From €93.
• Duration: 1 hour.
• Timetable: to be agreed with the photographer.
• What the tour may include: guide by professional photographer. 300 - 400 professional photographs. Retouching service for up to 20 photos.
• Means of transport: on foot.
• Pros: The photographer will be dedicated to you and/or your group for one hour, which allows you to focus on enjoying the trip, leaving aside your smartphone or personal camera. Planning the route is easier, the photographer takes care of it. Flexibility in schedules. In addition, some operators offer the tour in Spanish.
• Cons: Transportation is not included.

Japan's charm is not limited to Tokyo, but extends to other cities such as Kyoto and Osaka. In order to master the photographic technique by getting to know the trio of Japan's most popular cities, this intensive photography workshop was created.

This is the most comprehensive type of tour to get to know Japan's major cities while immersing yourself in a 10-day photography master class.

Tokyo

The experience usually starts in Tokyo. First of all, the group of maximum 10 people explores the streets of Ginza.

To start working on the concepts and contrasts of light, a few shrines, markets and temples are visited in the heart of the metropolis.

With the neon-lit streets of Shinjuku and Shibuya, the group will wander through the mysterious alleyways where the light enters with a ghostly glow.

The neighbourhoods of old Tokyo will also take centre stage on this tour, as will the "shitamachi" or "lower town", where the houses date back to the post-war boom and their facades tell as many stories as the district's elderly inhabitants.

Kyoto

The tour changes cities to reach Kyoto, after a brief transit on the bullet train. Here, traditionalism and a conscious connection with the environment and nature converge. The area around the Nazenji Zen temple complex is often visited.

The Nanzenji gardens are ideal for creating composite photos. Afterwards, you continue through the moss-covered temples on the slopes of the mountains flanking the ancient capital, ending in less travelled places.

Osaka

The group heads to the third city on the tour, Osaka, where you will see this ancient metropolis seemingly frozen in time.

Then it's time for Japanese food photography with Nikkei food. It pays to learn how to use contrasts and Osaka has what you need to perfect this technique.

Interesting details

• Price: From 3.100 €.
• Duration: 10 days.
• Timetable: all day.
• What the tour may include: guide by professional photographer. Tripod for your camera. All breakfasts. Geisha photography session. Entrance to Mori Tower. Luggage transfer service between Tokyo and Kyoto. 10 nights hotel accommodation. Train ticket. Bullet train ticket between Tokyo and Kyoto. Sightseeing tour and guide through the main cities and conglomerates of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.
• Means of transport: on foot, train and underground.
• Pros: The guide will be dedicated to instructing you and/or your group in professional photography for 10 days, which allows you to develop skills as a professional photographer. The planning of the route is facilitated, the photographer of the chosen operator takes care of the task. The chosen operator will book accommodation for you. Flexibility in scheduling.
• Cons: Offered in English or Japanese.

• These kinds of tours are designed for you to explore the full potential of your camera to make the most of all its possibilities.

• Always wear comfortable shoes for all these tours, as they tend to be long and most of them are done on foot or by public transport.

• Be sure to plan a daily schedule of activities with your tour operator so that you don't waste time in the city. Tokyo has a wide variety of postcard spaces, but it takes time to travel from one end to the other.

• Try to opt for personalised or small-group tours.

• Book your photo tour well in advance. Places sell out easily as this is a hobby for the Japanese and an attraction for tourists.

• The Tokyo Skytree, an astonishing 334-metre structure that is visible from almost the entire capital of Japan.
• Odaiba, a land of contrasts between gardens and technology and innovation.
• Tokyo Tower, the photographs there - especially if you visit when the sun goes down - are reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower at night.
• Senso-ji Temple, a sacred space with breathtaking views at the end of Nakamise Street.
• Rainbow Bridge, a showcase for the use of renewable energy. Its multi-coloured lights are powered by solar panels.
• The entrance to Tokyu Plaza Harajuku and its ever-busy street.
• Shibuya Crossing, an iconic intersection you're sure to recognise from the seventh art depicting Japan.
• Hama- rikyu Gardens, a 280-metre oasis that concentrates the natural beauty of Japanese culture.
• Weekend cosplay at Yoyogi Park.
• The traditional Omotesando Avenue.
• The hectic Omoide Yokocho and its memory lane.