Nagano road trip part I
I checked out of Tokyo for two days to go on a road trip to Nagano. Just the night before I was looking forward to getting out of the city, making new friends and just taking the opportunity to see more of Japan.
As you know, I’m a camping veteran by now. Armed with a sleeping bag, I climbed into a rented Nissan with a couple, Martin and Shannon, whom I didn’t know at all. My friend Corinne invited me to go but she was driving the other car. I was a little nervous but all of those thoughts flew out of the window with their warm smiles and bubbly chitchat.
After a three-hour drive, we left Tokyo’s cyber landscape behind and arrived to this:
A bunch of boho-looking folks playing Frisbee. They were so friendly! We arrived without our link, Toshi, whose birthday was the reason for this huge party. Maybe people who live in the country are generally friendlier than cool city peeps, which I welcomed, of course. Shannon joked that they were like granola — wholesome, countrified, and a little crusty. Seriously, they just looked like backpackers — the Thai drawstring pants, t-shirt look complete with Havana slippers, and some had dreadlocks. They were all English teachers who live around Nagano. They were mostly from the UK, Australia, Canada and the States.
With nothing to do in the wild, we cracked open some tall-boy Chu-His (fruit juice flavoured bubbly shochu) and leaned back on our camping chairs. Ahhhh…
When our stomachs started growling and the sun was setting, we got a roaring barbecue going:
Marinated beef, chicken, sausages and vegetables were bought from the supermarket and they totally rocked. Yen, Corrine and I cooked up a storm, East Coast Park style — efficiently rotated the meats and fanned the charcoal fire vigorously. The other friends in the group were amazed three petite Singaporean girls could buy so much food and eat the majority of it, too.
Then we sat down with our bottles of vodka, umeshu (plum liqueur) and red wine with full tums. The first gulp of ice-cold umeshu soda was worth all the sweating.
A full moon watched us as we partied under the stars…
the lodge was huge and could literally hold 50 of revelers but everyone was out at the bonfire warming their feet, strumming rock/folk ditties to bong drums, drinking and laughing. Someone even brought marshmallows to skewer….. and of course, we had to have….
Fireworks!
I K.O-ed at 3am to snoring fellow partygoers.
To be continued…
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