Tokyo Metropolis
The place
The city is too large to cover in one session, so the base 30 minutes is built around one neighbourhood, and extra hours add a second on the same train line. The classic pairing is Marunouchi and the Imperial Palace moat — the restored 1914 red-brick Tokyo Station, the wide ginkgo avenue of Gyoko-dori and the stone bridges of Nijubashi are all within a fifteen-minute walk — followed by Ginza or Shibuya after dark. Weekday mornings before nine are the quietest time almost everywhere; Sunday afternoons are the busiest.
Drones are the honest exception. Almost all of the 23 wards are a densely inhabited district under the Civil Aeronautics Act, metropolitan parks prohibit flights by ordinance, and the Imperial Palace and government quarter fall under the Small Unmanned Aircraft Prohibition Act. We do not fly over streets, parks or crowds in Tokyo. Aerial work is limited to private land — a hotel, a venue or an estate on the edge of the city — with the owner’s consent and an MLIT approval filed through DIPS 2.0 about ten business days in advance.
Before you go
Seasonal calendar
Typical peak windows. They move by a week or more from year to year; we check the forecast when you book.
Most rental shops are in Asakusa, where dozens sit within a few minutes of Kaminarimon; there are a handful in Harajuku and Shinjuku. For a shoot elsewhere in the city you dress at a rental studio near the shoot through the kimono add-on ($55 per person, rental and dressing), or dress in Asakusa and meet us there; a dresser at your hotel is quoted separately on request. Dressing takes 30–45 minutes; hair styling is booked separately.
Train stations, department stores and shopping-centre interiors do not allow staged shoots; we work on public streets and in places that allow photography. Tripods are refused in most gardens and on observation decks. Do not block pavements or station exits, keep voices down on trains, and never photograph people’s faces up close without asking. Metropolitan gardens and national gardens require an application for commercial or wedding shoots, which we file when you book.
Haneda is 25–40 minutes from central Tokyo by Keikyu or the Tokyo Monorail; Narita is about an hour by the Narita Express or Keisei Skyliner. The JR Yamanote loop links Tokyo Station, Shibuya and Shinjuku, and the Ginza line runs from Shibuya through Ginza to Asakusa in about 33 minutes.
The spots
Here is where to shoot in Tokyo, with the hours that work and the venue rules.
The red-brick façade with its two domes faces a broad granite plaza, and the long axis of Gyoko-dori runs from it straight to the palace. The plaza works for full-length portraits with the whole building behind; the KITTE rooftop gives the elevated view with the Shinkansen tracks alongside.
Light through the year
The façade lights up at dusk and Marunouchi Naka-dori has gold illuminations from early November into February; sunset is around half past four.
Sunset is near seven; the plaza holds heat, so we shoot the blue hour and finish by eight.
The stone double-arched bridge over the moat, with the Fushimi watchtower behind, seen from the edge of the gravel plaza. The space is wide and pine-dotted, so even on a busy day there is room to step away from other visitors.
A 700-metre path along the palace moat under a canopy of cherries that lean right out over the water. The rowing boats below are the picture everyone knows; the path itself is narrow and becomes one-way at peak, so we shoot it at dawn.
Light through the year
The moat faces west, so the morning light comes from behind the path and lights the blossom over the water; evenings are lit up but crowded.
Quiet and green; the boats run in summer and the bare branches in winter make a sparse, graphic frame.
A Buddhist temple whose 1622 Sangedatsumon gate and main hall stand directly in front of the 333-metre tower. The row of stone Jizo statues in red knitted caps on the west side is the quieter frame.
A former shogunal garden on Tokyo Bay with a tidal seawater pond, and a teahouse on an island linked by wooden bridges. The contrast is the point: pines and a thatched roof in the foreground, the Shiodome towers behind.
District by district
Visitors book by where they are staying, and the light, crowds and rules change from one district to the next. Each has its own page.
Shoots here
These are booked from their service page; the photographer meets you here at the same price.
Read before you book
No travel charge
These come under the Tokyo rate: the photographer travels out at no extra charge, and the shoot is priced exactly as it would be in Tokyo itself.
Before you book
Not over the city itself. Central Tokyo is a densely inhabited district, parks ban drones, and the palace area is a legal no-fly zone. If you have a private venue — a hotel terrace or an estate on the outskirts — we can apply for MLIT approval with the owner’s consent, which takes about ten business days.
The base 30 minutes covers one. Two is realistic with an extra hour if they share a line: Marunouchi and Ginza are a ten-minute walk apart, Shibuya and Harajuku one stop. Asakusa to Shibuya is 33 minutes on the Ginza line, so that pair needs two extra hours.
Light rain suits Tokyo at night — wet streets double the neon — and we bring clear umbrellas. In heavy rain we move the session to another day within your stay at no charge; in the June–July rainy season we suggest leaving a spare day.
At the first location or your hotel lobby anywhere in the covered areas. ZH clients can arrange everything with us on WeChat, including the meeting point and a Mandarin-speaking assistant on the day.
Next step
We reply within 2 hours, 9:00–21:00 Japan time. No deposit required to enquire.
