Visit famous tourist spots like you’ve never seen them before. 

Japanese temples and shrines are often dubbed “power spots” in Japan due to the inherent, mystical beauty that makes them feel as if they’re magically regenerating the spirit of everyone who visits them.

Experiencing their beauty in real life can be an unforgettable experience, but capturing their mystery in photos isn’t always as easy as it seems. For Japanese photographer @wasabitool, though, photographing these spots at their finest is something he specialises in, and his recent photos capturing the city of Kyoto in all its winter splendour show just how spectacular these places can be.

This first set of photos, which recently went viral online, show the famous garden at Hosen-in temple blanketed in snow.

Hosen-in is famous not just for its garden, but for the fact that it’s a “blood ceiling” temple, one of several in Kyoto which are so named because they use wooden boards marked by the blood of dead samurai on their ceilings.

A visit to Hosen-in is a memorable experience, but on this particular day, and in this particular light, the snowy garden scene looks particularly stunning.

▼ The view looks like a painting in real life.

Another famous site captured by the keen eye of @wasabitool is Kyoto’s Kifune Shrine.

Kifune Shrine, located in a quiet village in the northern mountains of Kyoto, is famous for its gorgeous stairway lined with vermillion lanterns.

The lanterns are lit until 8:00 p.m. on Saturday evenings when there’s snowfall between 18 January and 29 February. People say the lit lanterns on snowy evenings makes for one of the country’s most magical sights, and looking at these photos, it’s easy to see why.

Kyoto isn’t the only destination that gets attention in @wasabitool’s striking portfolio, as he travels around Japan capturing the country in all its glory throughout the seasons. Now that the plum trees are coming into bloom, they’re currently in focus on his Twitter and Instagram pages.

▼ These images come from a plum grove in Osaka Castle Park.

If you’re not able to get to Japan at the moment, @wasabitool’s images are definitely the next best thing to being here. And now that photography is sadly off-limits at some places around Kyoto due to the problem of overcrowding by tourists, photos like these that capture their beauty are all the more cherished and magical.

Source: Net Lab NHK News Web
Top image: Twitter/@wasabitool 
Insert images: Twitter/@wasabitool (1, 2, 3, 4) 
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