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  • 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?

Hello World!

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