Camping out in Nippon

Last weekend was my first time camping. I won’t count sleeping in a tent pitched on the school field as real camping.

“Babe, the point of camping is to drink a lot of booze and smell after four days of not showering,” the kangaroo informed me, as I was squeezing in travel-sized bottles of shampoo and shower gel into my Crumpler. Well, being the ever-optimistic gal, I brought them along anyway. We were going to a place that had water, right?

On the way to Saiko, a lake at the foot of Mount Fuji, we saw Fuji-san. Although I’ve seen it in pictures and from a far distance in Tokyo or through a train window, this famous mountain was truly an arresting sight to behold when it’s that near:

So we had to take a picture in front of it. The kangaroo is very fond of placing heads in the corner of photos of iconic landmarks:

When we arrived at the camping site after a two-hour drive, this was our view:

Japan’s inaka (nature) is just so pretty.

The kangaroo managed to snag the hammock.

Megumi and Scott were hard at work setting up their tent. In comparison, the kangaroo and I were a bunch of lazy-asses. If we were on Survivor, we wouldn’t be able to last the first round.

From my foray into Aussie nature, I learned one thing: you do nothing when you’re in the country. This is something my Singaporean city slicker friends will find illuminating. In Australia, I expected that there will be some acitivities on the menu, but really, there was just food and drink. And lots to drink, my friends. I went on a house boat for three days on the Huxbury River in Sydney — I didn’t bring enough warm clothes or any form of entertainment like an iPod or a book. So I sunbathed and drank and ate. The water was too cold to have a decent swim.

So this time I came prepared with James Clavell’s Shogun. I think I only read four pages. Why? Too much booze:

Okay, these Asahis were pretty small. What made our camping decadent was champagne before 11am.

And this….

The kangaroo was very thirsty so he bought a two-litre bottle of Suntory whiskey. Look, it even has a handle like juice bottles…

I must say that even though I didn’t have much excitement during my first camping trip, the kangaroo’s was action packed. Our friend, Pier’s kids, Lucient and Angus thought the kangaroo was Gulliver, so they tied him to a tree so he wouldn’t escape:

And when they finally felled him, they held him hostage to a chair:

He was told he was allowed to pee and eat there. But being the kind little devils they were, they eventually let him go to collect firewood:

Aiyo, so rustic! What was the icing on the cake for this trip? ONSEN. Can you believe how posh my first camping experience was — there was a hot spring resort just a three minute walk away. Did I mention there was a toilet next to our campsite?

After our steak and eggplant bbq dinner (fine dining in the woods, eh?), the boys (including the grown up ones) set off DIY fireworks. It was really quite romantic… the neighbouring city dogs howled in bewilderment. After the sparkles died and the kids went to bed, the adults sat in front of the fire…… and talked about the fire: “You need to push that one over so more oxygen will get the fire going… No, that one. Yes, that’s right. Blow on it now!” and so on and so on till midnight when we all turned in.

The morning after, the kangaroo and I took a lovely walk by the lakeside after brushing our teeth:

More entertainment before we hopped into the car to go out to lunch:

Smoke bombs!

I was definitely a happy camper. A clean, well fed one.

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