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Yup, got internet access. Lots of trees. Will post some
photos when we get back

Where are you camping? Looking forward to your pictures.

Can't Wait!

Amazing times we live in. Yes, we had internet access from our desserted island in the Pacific Ocean, but I was afraid of the roaming charges. I look forward to your reports and eventual pictures.

OK, we survived. The camp site was in the mountains near Hadano, about 1.5 hours from Tokyo by car.

Here on Google Maps

The trip to the campground was straightforward though the last 5 or 10 miles are very twisty and the road narrows to single lane fairly often. We passed a lot of cyclists going up the mountain. I like cycling, but I much prefer the car for climbing mountains.

The campground is set up for car campers and is set in a valley with a small river running through it. Lots of Japanese pines and other trees.


We got the tents set up without any issue.


Then we all took a moment to enjoy the scenery. In this picture, Mrs Putaro, Princess Pyromania (6 - more on the pyromania later) and YT. My son, Bug Boy (8), is behind the camera.



We then went for a walk to see where the river went to.


The river hit a drop-off less than a hundred meters away from our tents. (That's Bug Boy in the picture). Note the very small "Don't Go Off Here Or You'll Die" sign.



That looks to be a good 10 meter drop. Guess we'd better put the inner tubes away!


After dinner we were going to have a campfire but it started raining and we got a couple hours of heavy rain. We put the kids to sleep and turned in early ourselves. Around 10 PM the rain had stopped, I was asleep, and a small voice came from outside "Dad - I have to go to the bathroom" so I took the Princess over to the toilets (note: these were the BEST campground toilets ever - clean and they even had those "washlets"). Afterwards she didn't want to go back to sleep and the rain had stopped so she and I sat up and started a campfire - fortunately I had bagged the wood when it started raining. We didn't have much kindling, though, so I finally resorted to getting it started with the gas stove. So much for wilderness survival skills. She enjoyed adding wood to the fire (hence the "pyro" designation) and we burned through our little pile of wood and I finally got her to fall asleep around midnight.

The next day we had a traditional camping breakfast of bacon & eggs and "Bug Boy" found a number of insects to chase around and torment in addition to his sister. We broke camp and got rolling back down the mountain by around 11 AM. At the entrance to the expressway is a very nice onsen (public bath) where we stopped, all had a shower and a soak in the hot bath and then some ice cream afterwards and I got 10 minutes in the massage chair. Then we grabbed some lunch and headed back to Tokyo.

So, nothing terribly adventurous. This was the first camping trip with the kids and the first one we've done since we've been in Japan and it worked out well. Hopefully we'll be able to do more.

WONDERFUL! I love the Princess Pyromaniac nick name. You know that campsite isn't too much different then the ones here in the Boondocks of VA, I guess I expected different trees or something. Still, absolutely gorgeous.

Your family looks like they actually enjoy being together. That's a very rare and precious thing. Your kids are beautiful and you have a lovely wife. Thank you for sharing.

Wonderful! So nice to meet you, putaro and lovely family! I love how they all have screenames.

Yes, you have to break the kids into camping slowly. I remember the first time I took our boys camping. They were in preschool. We prepared them for this adventure by taking a walk through the park. They were so scared of who knows what, they had to take turns getting picked up and carried. Then on the way to the actual camping trip they each bragged, "I'm not scared of camping!" LOL . . . In addition to burning fires and finding bugs, my boys also liked finding interesting rocks. Enjoy these days!

Ann

Now that is gorgeous. We don't have waterfalls in Louisiana. You need rocks and cliffs for that. All we have is marsh and mud. Lovely place. Lovely family.

Pretty much trees is trees, at least in the temperate zones. If you look at them closely there's obviously some differences, but for the most part they look similar. This area isn't that different from the Sierra Nevada region in California, either, though it is more humid. At least being up high it was cooler. I don't think I could survive camping out in Louisiana! I have camped out in the California desert - it's hot during the day but the temperature drops rapidly at night so it's cool when you're sleeping.

This was a good introduction to camping for the kids, though I'm a little worried about when we actually try roughing it! We'll have to work up to backpacking

Interesting to see, how many people like that sort of thing. Although I do camp out at least 3 times a year (Wacken festival, hellfest, Nürburgring 24h) all three have one thing in common. You are sober only two times during your entire stay - immediately after arrival and just in time to go home again.
As a recreational activity I don't like it at all. I guess I've spent too much time in bivouacs in the arse-end of the woods, sleeping in damp uniforms and peeing into a hole in the ground during my time in the army :S

But the nature looks spectacular

Love your pictures, putaro. Very nice family. The pictures made me a little bit "homesick". What I remember from Toyko-area is the heat during the summer. Your camping place seems to be the right, more cooler place to be.

Putaro, wonderful Photo's Nice looking famiy. Glad you were able to take a day's camping.

I camped a few times when I was a Boy Scout and once a friend a I camped out on Mt Rainier. Got accolades from the Park Ranger for our campfire. Thanks to the boy scouts.

SB

Glad to know that you had a good time there. We used to go camping quite often when I was little, but going back as an adult many years later I was shocked to find out how cold it was, even in what passes for our 'summer'. Is that an artificial cliff? The rock face doesn't look natural. Elfin safety are running wild in the UK so I had to chuckle at the 'safety rope' stopping you tumbling off a 10m cliff edge.

Weird. Now that I look at it, that does look like a man-made wall under that waterfall. Is it?

My advice about family backpacking is, Don't. My parents took us backpacking once and it was miserable. The work/fun ratio is way too high. I went backpacking with a youth group once to the top of a mountain and that went a little better, but I still wish a helicopter would have taken me to the top and dropped me off.

I must admit that my take on these outdoor activities has never been very enthusiastic - even before my time in the armed forces, which *really* healed me. To me, sleeping in a tent is a somewhat 'emergency option'. As I wrote earlier, we do it when we go to weekend-long metal festival, because in a tent you get a little less wet than just sleeping in the mud and you're not in immediate danger of getting peed on by people, who are too drunk to navigate their own carcass.
But as a way to spend my vacation? No way When we were kids we went camping at the baltic sea every year for three bloody weeks . You had to share the facilites with 200 other people, not everyone aparently having a clue how to use a toilet and not turning it into a biohazard in the process and the tents were either damp or full of sand. I never understood what sort of fun my 'rents saw in that.
I've always been particular to solidly built houses I must admit though, for a scenery as spectacular as putaro's I might be inclined to endure a tent for a night or two, well at least if I'm allowed to bring a sixpack