Camping in Japan

We are home from our camping trip. It went well. We had a blast. This was the first time we have ever went camping just us, without another family. And it was the best trip ever. From the very beginning we all noticed the difference in getting out the door. When there is not a time table or others to meet, everyone can go at their own pace and get out the door when they are ready instead of at a specific time. By the time we were driving down the road I had tears in my eyes as I told Mandy how proud I was of her. I think I had a bit of PMS. But, I was so very amazed and proud of the young lady Mandy has become. So helpful and thoughtful, we all worked together seamlessly getting packed up and out the door. This is quite a task when you factor in all our animals and Little Miss Lily.

The drive there went pretty well, the directions were wonderful, every turn and landmark was easy to follow. This may not seem like such a big deal to those of you not living in Japan, but it is a major deal. You see they don't really mark streets all that well and reading the signs, which mostly do have English subtitles, but even then they are sometimes hard to follow. We made it there in about 4 hours. Lily slept the first couple of hours and then played with Mandy. She got car sick and puked all over everything and everyone near the end due to the windy mountain roads. She recovered once we got out of the car.

Last year camping with Lily was a bit harder. This year she did pretty good. She will be three in a couple of weeks. Pitching the tent, getting dinner ready all went very well. Just as much cooperation and family togetherness as getting out the door. Mandy did not want to go camping. She in fact hates camping and all outdoor activities. Yet, she helped without having to be asked. She brought to the group an amazing upbeat attitude. It was quite a grown up and nice thing to see. She even said that she had fun.

After dinner as the sun was setting Jeff and I decided to walk down the road to the ice cream shop. The walk was a little over 1 kilometer. By the way this camp ground is amazing and beautiful. I will post the 3 rolls of film as soon as we get it developed. We are just about at the top of a mountain in the camp ground and the road down to the visitor center was very steep and winding. Jeff put Lily on his back and we went down, down, down the road. By the time we got to the visitor center it was almost dark and they were closed for the night. We took a look around at the row boats and the captured bears in a cage. One thing I have noticed about Japan is that they do not appear to be as concerned with animal comfort as we Americans. This was a couple of bears that had been captured as cubs, and they were living in a tiny rusty metal cage with a cement floor.

With everything being closed, Jeff and I started back up the hill. It was incredibly steep. Since we got married we have been going on these walks with the steep hills and climbing stairs to get to the top of stuff. That is just Jeff. Normally I have quite a hard time with the steep hills and the climbing over 1000 stairs to get to the top of some church. But this time I did great. I was able to keep up with Jeff. He did have Lily on his back, but this is so big for me. I WAS ABLE TO KEEP UP WITH JEFF. Anyways, that was the most exciting part of the trip for me.

We got back to the campsite, tried to get Lily to fall asleep in the tent, played some cards and turned in. The other campers had all rented the cabins and we were the only tent campers. It was very peaceful to have such a wonderful campsite all to ourselves. To be there with just us and to work so well and get along so good. Lily had a bit of trouble going to sleep but otherwise it was a nice night. The next day we spent time hiking and seeing all the sites, we even visited Santa Claus at Santaland. I will tell you all about it when we get those pictures.

Next week we are going to Tokyo. This week I have my final project and my final exam in desktop publishing and also my introduction to programming class to worry about. Along with getting ready for Tokyo. I am very excited about Tokyo. We are going to Disneyland. Jeff is finally sewing on Master sergeant on Friday and Lily is turning three July 14th, plus we are excited that we will be in Disneyland for the fourth of July and we will get to see fireworks, God bless America.