Last week I made a short trip to Tokyo, I love Japan but was pretty excited for the trip because it was the season for Cherry Blossoms!
As with every trip overseas, I make sure I have a camera on me. For this trip, I collaborated with Canon to capture all my pictures for my Tokyo trip with the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS. I brought it along everywhere on this whole trip so all these photos you see below are taken with this camera!
After spending 4 days with this camera, these are some of my objective views on it.
When I first received the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS, I noticed its compact body which was a little flatter width-wise and longer length-wise. It was easy to grip with just one hand and fitted easily into my bag.
Although I got it shortly before my trip, it didn't take long to get used to it. It was really pretty user-friendly. If you're familiar with Canon cameras, the mode wheel and controls will be what you're used to. If you're new to the brand, the good thing is that it is straightforward and very easy to use. Most of the main functions are all set on the mode wheel, making it easy to switch from mode to mode. If you are looking to buy a camera for yourself or your parents, this would be a good gift! Most of our parents or grandparents who aren't into professional photography take pictures to capture precious memories of the trip and I'm sure they would prefer to travel with a camera which is light and easy to use.
One of the biggest and most impressive functions of this camera was its zoom. For such a compact camera, it was quite shocking that this small camera had 30x Optical zoom. I don't usually use far zooms but having such functions for trips overseas is a good to have because you never know what you'll need it for. Played around with this quite a bit on the trip. You can see more on this zoom function below!
Another plus-point was that it had built-in Wi-Fi. For me, it's really important to be able to update on-the-go. If you followed me on Instagram, you would have noticed me posting about Tokyo regularly. Thankfully, that was made possible and easy-to-do with this function.
One thing I really wish it had though, was a flip screen. This is the first time in a long time that I used a camera without a flip screen and it did feel weird at first because I couldn't take my usual selfies haha. Personally, having a flip screen for me would be better.
Overall, I won't lie and say this is the best camera I've used, for its price and functions, it was good enough for point-and-shoot images. What I like about this one is that it is so compact and light! It could fit into the pocket of my jeans and jacket easily. It was a great traveling companion!
Now finally, onto my trip! Definitely not the best Tokyo trip as it was raining so much I hardly went out but it still was a memorable one because of a few things!
Firstly, I managed to secure a reservation at a Michelin star restaurant, Sushi Honten!
Address: 6-3-8 Ginza, Chuo, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan
Phone: +81 3-3571-1968
Hours: Open today · 11:30am - 9:45pm
It's SOOOOO GOOD. I can just cry. LOL. It's really damn amazing!!! We had Omakase and it's about $300+/person exclusive of Sake. Not something you can eat everyday and definitely not everyone would want to spend that kind of money on food but i reeeeally love good food and I would definitely do it again!!! After that meal, my partner and I just couldn't stop smiling and it really made us so happy! We love Japanese food A LOT and this was definitely the best we've tried. I look forward to trying other Michelin Star Restaurants during the next trip!
I wanted to try a few more Michelin Star Restaurants REALLY badly but since I didn't, here are some on my list which I hope you can secure a reservation and share your experiences with me hehe...
Sushi Saito
1F Nihon Jitensha Kaikan, 1-9-15 Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo
Sushi Mizutani
8-7-7 Ginza Juno Building 9F, Chuo 104-0061, Tokyo Prefecture
Esaki
150-0001, Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 3-39-9 First Floor, +81 3 3408 5056
Sushi Kanesaka
8-10-3 Ginza, Chuo, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
From what I learnt, it's best to ask your hotel concierge to make the booking for you! :) Unfortunately, once I tried the food from the Michelin Star Restaurant, the food I tried at Tsukiji Fish Market was rather disappointing. I really am THAT in love with the food I had at Sushi Honten and I'm looking forward to trying those with more than 1 Michelin Star soon. Can't imagine food any better leh.
Well we woke up one day at 5am and queued for approx. 45 mins to eat at Sushi Daiwa at Tsukiji Fish Market. I wanted to try Sushi Dai but the queue was already insane at 5am.... I think we would have to wait 3-4 hours for a seat! So we settled for Sushi Daiwa.
6am breakfast at Sushi Zaiwa at Tsukiji Fish Market...
Used the macro function for all my food pictures in Japan. Love how it managed to capture the glistening effect on the fish and bringing out the texture and colours of the food so well. The macro mode made all the food so delicious!
Moving on from the food, now on to the sights!
Remember how I said the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS has such a powerful 30x Optical zoom? I stayed at the 43rd floor at Park Hyatt Hotel and decided to try how far the camera can zoom in...
Look at how clear it is after snapping! So impressive right? I read up a little more on this feature since it seemed like the main feature. Basically, this camera has an advanced zoom framing assist feature that helps to evaluate camera movement, distance to subject and even the number of faces there are in the photo! Whatever it was, it just really seemed to help me get that clear picture!
I snapped a few pictures of Sakura flowers on a tree using the zoom as well....
After zooming in, managed to get this bokeh effect!
Other than getting to eat so much good Jap food, the other unforgettable thing from my trip is SEEING CHERRY BLOSSOMS IN REAL LIFE.
The season's almost over in Tokyo but we managed to see some at Shinjuku Gyoen.
It was so beautiful!
Hope you enjoyed looking at the pretty images captured using the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS!
If you feel tempted to get yourself a Canon PowerShot camera for your next few travels too, why not try and win yourself one!
TRAVEL WITH POWERSHOT GIVEAWAY
There are 3 Canon PowerShot cameras to be won and the steps are really simple!
1. Follow @CanonSingapore on Instagram
2. Instagram a picture of you on your travels and tell us why you want the Canon PowerShot as your travel companion
3. Hashtag #TravelWithPowerShot for us to be able to track your post.
Contest ends on 15 May. For more information and to check out the other PowerShot travelogues, go to www.travelwithpowershot.com.sg