M&G’s Kyoto elopement began before the ceremony, before the sake, before the temple, and before the city had fully woken up. I met them early on a December morning in the old streets around Ninenzaka, just as the light was beginning to move across the rooftops. … It was a beautiful way to start the day.

There’s no point pretending otherwise: we’ve all noticed it. Not in headlines or government briefings, but on foot, on trains, and in the small frictions of daily life that only register when you’ve been here long enough to remember something different. For years, my wife and I had a ritual. Once a year, usually sometime in the first quarter, we’d escape to Kyoto for a week. … Kyoto back then felt expansive and unhurried. Even the famous places allowed space. It was calm in a way that felt almost deliberate. We could relax and disconnect. It was bliss.

B&C arrived in Japan for the trip of a lifetime. They set aside three weeks to live in and explore the country properly — to walk, to wander, to get lost, and to let the days unfold at an unhurried pace, before getting married in a secret mountain garden in Kyoto at the end of their trip. Three or four weeks in Japan changes the way you experience it. It gives you time to stop chasing highlights, start noticing the smaller things, and soak up the atmosphere of day-to-day living. It’s certainly how I like to travel!

And B&C wanted their photographs to reflect that pace.