An Early Morning Arashiyama Proposal — And a Walk Through the Old Streets After

By the time we met in Arashiyama, the morning air was already warming up. We had planned an early start on purpose — mid-July in Kyoto doesn’t leave much room for slow starts, and I wanted them to have the space almost entirely to themselves for the proposal.

He and I had worked out the plan together beforehand: he would naturally bring her to the spot we had chosen, right on time. And that’s exactly how it happened. When they arrived, everything unfolded so smoothly that even I was quietly impressed. Nothing about his approach gave anything away, and she had no idea what was about to happen.

When he asked, her surprise was complete. I could tell in an instant that she had not seen this coming at all. I kept shooting through the whole moment — the exchange, her reaction, the joy that followed. Some of my favourite frames from this year are from those first few seconds.

After we had captured the proposal itself and given them some time to just be together, I suggested we walk into the heart of Arashiyama for a change of scenery. They loved the idea. The atmosphere of central Arashiyama is completely different from where we had started — busier, full of traditional buildings, small shops, and that distinctive Arashiyama feeling in the air. We spent the rest of the hour there, capturing an entirely different mood in the same session.

They were both so wonderful throughout the whole thing. The heat was real, and I had asked them to walk quite a bit, but neither of them complained once. Every pose I suggested, they went for. Every spot we stopped at, they were up for. Their energy stayed light the whole way through, and it made every photo better.

By the end of the session, they had loved every image I showed them on the back of the camera. That’s always such a nice moment.

Thank you both so much for choosing me to photograph such an important morning, and thank you especially for walking through the summer heat without a single word of complaint. Congratulations — I really hope life brings you back to Japan sometime, and I would love to photograph you again.

If you are planning a summer proposal in Kyoto or want to catch Arashiyama before the crowds, you can browse my Kyoto packages.