VLOG 6: Viewing cherry blossom in Yoshino (Nara, Japan) 吉野山

To enjoy cherry blossom, we visited Yoshinoyama on a day trip. Yoshino is the most famous sakura viewing spot of all time in Japan. This video is a combination of cinematic vlog and travel guide.

In this travel vlog we return to the place where our YouTube journey originally started. Almost two years ago in our first ever vlog (https://youtu.be/IqdZv_VThsY) we visited one of the most sacred sites in Japan Mount Koya. Yoshinoyama, or Mount Yoshino, which we visited this time, is one more location in the same area at the border of the two prefectures Nara and Wakayama. Both of those mountains, Koyasan and Yoshinoyama, are closely related in many ways. They are part of the same very old pilgrimage route network, which covers most of Kii Peninsula and has over 1200 years of documented history. When Koyasan is a religious center of Shingon Buddhism, Yoshino is one of the centers of Shugendo religion. Shugendo is a syncretic religion originated from Buddhism and Shintoism in 7th century Japan. It worships sacred mountains and puts great emphasis on spiritual and physical training. This goes well together with the fact that this part of Japan has a very beautiful mountain nature. Yoshino is located on the edge of those mountains and the area further to the south is not so easily accessible by public transportation anymore compared to the rest of the country. Yoshino and Koyasan also belong to the same UNESCO World Heritage site which is called Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range. This UNESCO site consists of over 200 separate elements of different types scattered around the peninsula. Both of us are very interested in this part of Japan and you can expect a lot more vlogs from this area in the future. At the moment of posting this video we have filmed already three days, three parts long vlog from Kumano Kodo, where we went deeper into the mountains, hiked pilgrimage routes and explored more shrines.

Mount Yoshino is also well known for a huge amount of Cherry blossom trees planted on the slopes which makes it exceptionally beautiful in spring. It is said that there are over 30000 sakura trees. Actually, the place is so famous that calling it the best and the most famous cherry blossom viewing spot of all time wouldn't probably even be an exaggeration. There are a lot of very popular sakura spots in Japan and based on what I see, Kyoto as a whole is probably the most visited city during the cherry blossom season. Still I would argue that the first place should go to Yoshinoyama. First of all, it has been considered as such for over 1000 years in the classical literature. Starting from beginning of written history of Japan, that is to say 8th century Nara period, the place has been associated with the sakura and constantly praised for its beauty. The second criteria for such nomination should be the actual beauty of the place right now in reality. This is very subjective but as someone who has spent over 3 years already in total in Japan, lives in Kyoto and have been to Yoshino three times, from all beautiful sakura spots I have visited, I would give the crown without any doubt to Yoshino. I haven´t seen any other place that would come even close to the amount of sakura trees seen from one spot. Also, the surrounding nature and idyllic atmosphere of a small town with old temples add its own spice.

Our goal for this trip has been to go as far as we can by walking without use of public transport, so that we could provide a good overview of the whole area to anyone who is planning their own trip. This video is intended to be a cinematic vlog and a travel guide at the same time. It was filmed on at 8th and 15th of April 2019. We hope that you will be able to get some taste of the exceptional beauty of Yoshino by watching our travel vlog!

Thank you very much for watching!

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Music by Epidemic Sound, My personal referral link: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/exckmh/

Gear used:
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 16-35 f/4L IS USM
Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS II USM
Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG Art
Zhiyun Crane 2 gimbal
Sirui W-2204 tripod with Sirui K-30X ball head
RØDE Stereo VideoMic X
RØDE VideoMic Pro+
ZOOM H1 Handy Recorder
Hoya ProND8 neutral-density filter
Lowepro Whistler BP 450 AW backpack

Kumano Kodo drone footage was shot on DJI Mavic 2 Pro but no drone has been used for Yoshino scenes.

For the most part the video is shot in Full HD with C-Log. Only some clips were shot in 4K for the ability to zoom in. For editing I used Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects. The graphics were made in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. Pictures have been edited using Adobe Lightroom.

Видео VLOG 6: Viewing cherry blossom in Yoshino (Nara, Japan) 吉野山 канала Roman Sudarikov