Argh, the blown-out sky in every single photo is driving me crazy! The places are awesome, but the painfully bright gray haze is so distracting. At first I was thinking to say "shoot your photos with the sun BEHIND you!" and all would be better, but now I've seen enough to think that the skies in Japan (and China) are just perpetually ugly, so it's probably not your fault. Have you ever seen an actual blue sky in your time there?
Neil