Hello World!
My Japanese brother-in-law and his high school friends, along with their families,
decided to go camping and invited us along.
And of course, I brought my camera along as well.
However, by the time we arrived at the campsite on the first day, it was quite dark.
Mummy!
Why is it as if the patch is saying pitch a tent here?
So the main priority was setting up the tent.
It's a Coleman instant tent, which is not unique to Japan, but I wanted to see how instant it was.
Of course pitching the tent wasn't instantaneous, but whadya know,
it's in fact the easiest tent I've ever set up.
If you knew what you were doing you could get this bad boy pitched in under five minutes.
You know what? I'm going to turn this off. I don't need it on anymore.
After that, it got really dark, and I was tired from getting up at 4AM that day to drive,
so I put the camera away.
When we awoke in the morning, this was the view.
We happened to go camping at the end of November,
which depending on where you are in Japan, is fairly decent weather.
However, we decided to camp on top of a plateau.
It made for fantastic views,
but this was also officially the last weekend the site was open,
as the temperature would dip down to around freezing during the night.
As it happened, during the day we did non-camping stuff,
which was visiting an outdoor theme park.
And if you hopped on the train, you'd find yourself in Canada land.
My wife made me pose sadly in front of things, but in fact,
the thing I really was sad about was the price of maple syrup and whatever this is,
which is definitely not poutine.
I did perk up when I saw the hill rolling section,
although Shin decided to somersault it.
Camping at family-friendly campground like this provide lots of creature comforts,
like flush toilets, which I forgot to take pictures of,
showers, which I didn't take a picture of because we went to a nearby hot springs instead,
wash up areas, ash disposal pits,
solar powered night lights, paved roads,
and the most convenient thing of all, electricity.
So when I said it was cold outside, I was telling the truth,
but I also didn't mention that at night, we slept on top of a heated carpet.
As it happened, it was soo hot that it woke me up in the middle of night and I had to turn it down.
I don't know enough about camping to tell you how different this Japanese campground is
in comparison to where you're from,
but I did snap a few shots with my smartphone and maybe you can pick out some things for yourself.
A difference I noticed in comparison to camping in Canada
is that people bring their own fire pits.
The biggest difference I saw was the food that was prepared.
It could just be that it's my brother-in-law's friend group,
but they didn't seem to realize we were camping and made food just as if were warm inside a home.
The previous night I didn't pick up my camera to film,
but we had food from all over the world.
On the second night I was told it was going to be a simple butter chicken dinner,
but being a Japanese camping party, that was only the beginning.
Come here, it's warm here.
Do you want this one?
Who wants to drink tea?
Ah, it's good.
- Is it okay? - Is it okay?
Yes it's good, nice and sweet.
Thanks for the food.
It is tasty.
Here you are Greg-san.
Give rice to the little ones please.
Finish the one that's on your plate first.
- Iron grill table. - Iron grill table.
So this not only has a griddle and burner on the side,
but a couple burners underneath as well.
There are side slats that you can put on, and you can also convert it to a standard table like this.
- It's a burner, see. -Uh, yeah.
Apparently, holding the blowtorch is for amateurs.
The pros have a special technique.
Is this really safe?
- Technique. - Technique.
- Unagi restaurants use (charcoal). - Use this.
Yes.
- Yakitori restaurants too? - Yes, yakitori restaurants use this as well.
What the kids are sitting on is a hot carpet.
Of course, to sit in that area you need to take your shoes off.
Yes, I already took my contact lens off.
- Leftover vegetables... - What's the name of the dish?
Leftover vegetable soup.
- One more? - Sure, one more.
- Tomato, yeah.
Someone told me to add sesame seed oil.
- Wow, it's hot to touch. - Drink up, drink up.
- Japanese-style, right? - Japanese-style.
Right.
You guys don't grill fish and beef at the same time like this, right?
I'm going to eat it.
- Tasty. - Tasty, tasty (muffled sound).
I'm starting.
- Can I? - Yeah, sure.
The sound effects.
- Wow, it looks nice and juicy. - Yeah, it's good, did you try it?
Hold on.
- You're adding a lot! - Cover the meat with the vegetables so it can steam them.
We'll do a second batch.
After that we'll put sake on and steam it.
It's underneath...
These are warm. Very warm!
- Those are actually for feet. - Wow, (your) idea works well.
We can eat, we can eat.
We'll make onigiri as well.
Yaki onigiri (charcoal grilled rice balls).
Miso paste.
Don't touch it. Don't touch it.
I think it's good. If we put it on longer it'll burn.
Ho... it's hot.
Tasty. It's tasty.
Tasty!
No one has eaten this part.
What do you think Ai-chan?
- So? - It's tasty.
Put boiled water into the thermos...
and dilute it with hot water.
Hot water first.
Put in shochu.
Delicious. This hits the spot.
Firewood.
We woke up to Fuji-san looking so spectacular again, and I had to throw my drone up one more time.
It was really nice to get together with all the families and kids,
and we even made new friends with the neighbours.
The last meal was the simplest, coffee and french toast.
Can you pass me a plate?
After that, it was time for the adults to pack up...
And the kids to run around.
Thanks for watching, see you next time, bye!
What's camping like where you're from?