Best places to photo-shoot landscapes and natural beauty
 

Hello,
We are planning to visit this beautiful country in last week of October. We are in very initial phase of planning, so any suggestion would be appreciated.
We will have 10 days to spend there and we can travel by train + car (wherever we need to access remote areas, like Iya Valley and Shikoku) and if needed, by ferry too.
Flying in/out Tokyo is $150/person less than flying in/out from Osaka, but we are yet to book flight.
I think, our plan will be carried out by our interest and time of travel, which is last week of October. Regarding our interest, we are mostly into photogenic beautiful landscapes and beautiful architectures (may be some castles and temples). We are less into big cities, museums and history.
I need help to figure out, as per our interest, which would be most beautiful parts of Japan. I understand it can be a wide question to ask, but being nature and landscape photographer, we want to skip city life.
Another easy question - We have option to fly in between 15th October to 30th October. Considering my expectations, what should be best time ?
Please feel free to ask more, if I am not clear in my expectations.
Regards

Have you consulted japan-guide.com? It is, by far, the single best resource on travel to Japan.

I think you will find that you will need to be extremely selective in planning a 10-day trip -- there is so much to see and experience in Japan! With your interests, Tokyo might not be of great appeal; in contrast, while Kyoto is a city, its temples offer some stunning architecture and often feel very much apart from the city, even if within it. The extra cost of flying into Kansai might be worth considering. Or, depending on what you decide to visit, fly into Osaka and out of Tokyo (or vice versa).

It sound like you will be traveling during the time when leaves in Japan turn autumn colors -- "koyo" -- which is an extremely popular time to travel there. This webpage should give you a sense of the predicted times and help you choose when to go
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2014_when.html
If you are planning to travel this year, you should make reservations soon.

Yes, I was trying to get idea from japan-guide.com and it is great but overwhelming. There are so many places, with beautiful pictures, it is hard to decide, which is more photogenic.
Yes, Tokyo is not most appealing for me, I can use it only to fly in/out.

<<The extra cost of flying into Kansai might be worth considering>> Is it because Kansai and around area will give more scenic places ?

>>If you are planning to travel this year, you should make reservations soon.<<

ditto that. If you mean this year it may already too late to find the sorts of accommodations you want - or in popular locations <i>ANY</i> accommodations. You should book immediately if not sooner.

I'd say the later you can travel the better. We were in Japan in November a few years ago and were there at the height of the koyo. People are right though, book NOW if you can find anything in Kyoto.

Depending on where you want to spend your time, it may be less expensive overall to fly into Kansai. No doubt you will want to spend some time in Kyoto.

Here are our photos from that trip, they may give you ideas about places you would like to visit: http://www.marlandc.com/Japan-2013

I understand, I will not be able to cover all Japan in 10 days, so trying to figure, which area will appeal us most. If Hokkaido are is more scenic, I can fly on 15th October, or else later. Can it be decision factor ? I have flexibility to fly any day between 15th October and 5th November. So it is South is more naturally beautiful or North of Japan.

We are not much into hiking, but mostly into nature and photographic places. Hokkaido region looks interesting to me (at least on internet pictures), but I am not sure, if I will be able to go other places as well in 10 days. Can I ?

Whichever place I choose to visit, will it be helpful to rent car for remote areas and combining it with train for long distance ?

If you are hoping to shoot the autumn colors in Japan, then for the time you plan to travel you are more or less limited to the northern parts of the country (Tohoku Region and Hokkaido - and Hokkaido would already be getting pretty cold) or the high mountain areas like the Japan Alps.
Actually, Karuizawa would be one excellent place for you to consider. The colors should be in full swing by then. And you can easily get there on a Tokyo Wide Pass to save money.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6030.html
Around 70% of Japan is mountainous so there is no shortage of beautiful natural scenery. In your case for some places I would say renting a car would be a good idea for some isolated places - make sure you are up to driving in Japan.

I can give you a few popular places you might consider. There are of course many more than I can write about here.

1) Lake Towada & the Oirase Stream (Aomori) - Should be magical at that time of year.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3778.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3775.html
http://bit.ly/2c7FrAe
2) Yamadera (Yamagata) - A very picturesque temple on a steep mountain with killer views.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7940.html
3) Bandai (Fukushima) - A beautiful and almost untouched area.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7750.html
4) Kitayamazaki Coast (Iwate) - A scenic and rugged coastline.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5034.html
5) Jodogahama Beach (Iwate) - Another beautiful coastline that will eat up a lot of memory for photos.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5029.html
6) Matsushima (Miyagi) - A gorgeous bay with tons of places as well as some excellent temples nearby.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5100.html
7) Oze National Park (Gunma) - A marshland that turns golden brown for autumn and loaded with great scenery.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7440.html
8) Hitachi Seaside Park (Ibaraki) - A mind blowing flower park that you may never want to leave.
http://en.hitachikaihin.jp/
http://bit.ly/2c1HT8f
9) Nikko (Tochigi) - Famous for its temples, but there are also lakes, hot springs, waterfalls...
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3800.html
10) Mt Fuji area - either Hakone or the Fuji 5 Lakes area. Both have spectacular views.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5200.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6900.html
11) Yamanouchi/Jigokudani (Nagano) - The famous spot for snow monkeys bathing is still a beautiful photo op.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6028.html
12) Chubu Sangaku National Park - Includes such scenic places like Kamikochi and the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6043.html
13) Takayama & Shirakawago (Gifu/Toyama) - The former is getting more touristy, but for a taste of old rural Japan, this place is a must.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5950.html
14) Shimanami Kaido (Hiroshima/Ehime) - This is a good hard workout by rental bicycle but you'll see some amazing views. Plus there is the Kosanji Temple, one of the most wildly ornate places in Japan (some call it a "Buddhist Disneyland").
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3478.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Q5EjEOXI8
15) Akiyoshido Limestone Cave (Yamaguchi) - You probably thought everything good was above ground - not so. This 300 million year old cave has massive caverns and an underground river going through it. Totally breathtaking.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6130.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqIKC9S8TFQ
16) Yakushima (Kagoshima) - You'll never forget this small island - it's like a primordial world on another planet.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4650.html
http://bit.ly/2bsXnqf
17) Okinawa (Miyako & Yaeyama Islands) - Probably nobody would think of suggesting this to you - but these semi-tropical islands are crammed full of beautiful scenery and great places to photograph (not to mention have fun).
http://www.japan-guide.com/list/e1247.html
http://bit.ly/2c1CApr

That should give you some places to consider. Now you have to argue over which ones!

>>Flying in/out Tokyo is $150/person less than flying in/out from Osaka, but we are yet to book flight.

That's fine, if you are going to Tokyo. Not fine if you want to go to Kansai region. The one-way rail fare is over $120.

You should consider flying for long distances using special fares for visitors. For example, I picked an October day and found that the ANA Experience JAPAN fare was available from Tokyo HND/NRT to Sapporo for $111/$113 one way and a low carrier might beat that.

The one-way rail fare is over $120 - from Tokyo to Kyoto.

So much of Japan is rural that you should be able to find beautiful scenery in most regions, you just need to pick which one appeals most.

Thus far, I've enjoyed rural scenery via self-drive in the Northern half of Kysuhu, in Kanazawa and up along the Noto Pensinsula, in Karuizawa, and in Miyama, north of Kyoto, where we rented a traditional bamboo-thatched wooden built house in a small rural village. I wish we'd stayed there longer.

Thanks all for your amazing help. It took sometime for me to go through excellent links provided by Adastra2200.

Kavey, in many of the posts, driving is discouraged. Was it really tough ? I am used to drive on both sides, but not familiar with Japanese language/sign-boards.

Gosh really? It was superbly easy, even in Kyoto as we came into it and returned the car. Road rules are easy and max speeds very slow, we had a sat nav (GPS) and didn't struggle at all. We drive on same side but that's not it as we've driven all over the world, it just felt really relaxing in Japan!

Road signs were not a problem, most has English on them too, we can't read any Japanese.

Adastra2200 was incredibly kind to post all those links for you. But just to be clear -- there's a lot more information available to you on the japan-guide.com website, so spend some time browsing it, using it's search feature, etc.