A View of Japan was the first film I made with my Sony DVD201E camera.

The video footage was shot in 4:3 Standard Definition PAL. The stills were also taken using the DVD201E. Post-processing was performed using Premiere Elements 3.

We were lucky enough to be able to spend 25 days in Japan – however, during that time it rained for all but 3 of those days as you will see from the footage. A typhoon hit Tokyo the evening we arrived and another one passed through the city of Kanazawa while we were there two weeks later. A few days after that, when we were in the far south in Hiroshima, a severe earthquake occurred in Niigata prefecture which is about 250 kilometers north of Tokyo.

This was the second time that Marilyn and I had visited Japan and this experience allowed us to travel quite widely. In broad terms our trip covered Tokyo, Nikko, Kamakura, Lake Ashi, Sendai, Matsushima Bay, Takayama, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Mia Jima Island. The trip concluded back in Tokyo. We travelled on the high-speed Shinkansen network when we had to go long distances and we used local trains and buses when we were sightseeing.

The music is played on a Japanese string instrument called a shimasen.