One thing I really like about Japanese TV series is that they are produced with a much smaller budget than many western series. Sounds weird? Well, for the one or two people who kept reading past "Japanese", let me explain to you why I feel that way:
If you're producing a TV series that runs for 5 season á ~20 episodes and sell said series to countries all over the world, you can pump gigantic amounts of money into setpieces and SFX. In Japan, however, primetime series usually last for only one season with anywhere between 8 and 11 episodes, and that's it. Furthermore, they air only in Japan, i.e. there's no money to be made from licensing them to foreign TV stations/DVD companies. This, in turn, means that there's no money to spend on elaborate setpieces; no money to build twenty different locations for one episode.
The Japanese compensate for that by shooting a great deal of footage outside, not on the premises of some studio where they recreate whole streets, but on location in, usually, various parts of Tôkyô and Yokohama, sometimes also Kyôto. The amount of scenes where the actors walk down real streets, sit in real parks and run around real neighbourhoods is unmatched. Not only does this lend the series a more realistic feeling, it's also really nice for someone like me who lived in Japan and recognizes quite a few of the places. "Oh hey I've been there" is an awesome feeling.
As far as beautiful shots are concerned,
Shooting star/Nagareboshi pretty much takes the cake. Some screenshots from episode 5:
Asakusa (Tôkyô)

Dunno where, but the view is awesome:

Guess which mountain this is (hint: yes, it is the one you think it is)


