Fushimi Castle - White drone down

On my vacation to Japan this Fall I went to Fushimi Castle in Kyoto to take a few pictures and videos with my drone.

The Fushimi area is mostly known for the Fushimi Inari shrine (Good old Kyoto) with thousands of red Torii, but there is more and you can easily get to the castle grounds, it's just a little bit of walking from the Fushimi Nankai station.

In case of using a drone I prepared a lot better this time than in Fall 2016 (Drones in Japan). Fushimi Castle is no RED ZONE so it's allowed and completely fine to fly there, also because there is no sort of administration - the gras had grown high compared to Hanami Season, everything looked a little wild and the castle can't be entered or has a museum inside.

I had already visited the castle grounds in March during the Hanami season, when many people gathered beneath the cherry trees drinking beer while doing a picnic.

 

 

In Fall the people around were a few elderly people painting pictures of the area. They where a little suprised when I started my DJI Phantom 2 drone with a gimbal for my GOPRO 4, but didn't get shocked like last year in Ueno Koen. I have been "up in the air" for around 9 minutes flying around the castle tower and up to 75> m high also seeing a baseball field nearby and the whole city of Kyoto. I was just getting my drone down before the gimbal got loose 15 m above the ground making it falling down and completely destroying the gimbal, but luckily not my Gopro or any data.

Now enjoy the pictures, especially those from above before the "WHITE DRONE DOWN" happened.

Drones in Japan

Flying drones in Japan ain't easy, if you're unexperienced controlling it as well, but I am actually talking about the lack of information about RED ZONES (no flight area), especially the languare barrier is a big issue, the only official sites about rules that you can find is about the general stuff, not next to airports, not above 150m...

http://www.mlit.go.jp/en/koku/uas.html

Violating those laws can cost up to 500,000 yen.

By reading those information I didn't think a fly over the Ueno park in Tokyo at night (the restrictions at night seem to be new) would violate anything - actually it doesn't, no densely inhabited destrict, no airport nearby, no event, almost nobody at the park at night.

That's why I tried a short flight last year after Tokyo Game Show Press day.
Shortly after starting my drone a few police officers were standing behind me, asking if this is my drone, although they had to wait for an interpreter. I violated the law, because the whole city of Tokyo is a RED ZONE, how could I know. They took me to the police station and made me feel like a criminal, checking all my stuff, each and every part of it.

Luckily I didn't have to pay any ammount or go to jail, but I had to write a letter to the chief officer of the station that I didn't know about that law and I also had to promise not to fly my drone again in Tokyo.

But my questions about those "secret" RED ZONES kept unanswered - TOKYO NOT ALLOWED... - that's all. I saw many videos of drones in Tokyo, so I still wonder how they got their permissions, because the Police officers told me it's almost impossible to get a permission.

It took a while and a lot of effort to find out something about those NO FLIGHT ZONES, but this source is japanese only, but finally I am able to check the spots where I want to fly, for example Fushimi Castle in Kyoto, I might try this spot during my next trip to Japan.

Here's the HOLY GRAIL for areas to fly a drone in Japan:
RED ZONE MAP JAPAN

The only flight that I was able to do yet was above Mount Iwafune a place where many Super Sentai (Western version: Power Rangers) explosion scenes where shot.

The drone I used is the DJI PHANTOM VISION 2, before making the first videos, you should practice the general flying. If you use it together with a GOPRO like I do BE CAREFUL WITH THE GOPRO WIFI, if you switch on the GOPRO Wifi and start your drone, you can't control it, those 2 frequences interfere so you might LOSE YOUR DRONE AND YOUR CAMERA.

I will try to make a few more drone pictures on my next trip to Japan.