Camping in the Country

During my parents recent visit, they brought along a suitcase for us that included a new tent, sleeping bags, and camping accessories that I ordered online and had shipped to them. Most American outdoor gear has a HUGE markup in Japan, and the Japanese brands aren't much cheaper because they typically have a luxury focus. If you live in Japan and you like camping, I recommend having visitors shuttle cheap gear for you!

With our new gear, we were finally able to go camping. We did a bit of research on places that were within driving distance and picked a place just over an hour away in a rural part of Sanda. During our research, we noted that a lot of camp grounds are not cheap, which defeats half the purpose of camping! The Sanda Yagai Katsudo Center was one of the cheap ones though.

It was amazing to drive just over an hour away and suddenly be in tranquil, rural, farm country. The camp ground was small, but nice. There was a good hiking trail up the little mountain beside the camp, so we got in our exercise. We made some delicious yaki niku (Korean inspired Japanese-BBQ), and it was my first time using a Japanese grill by myself. The charcoal here is not quick-light, so you essentially have to build a small fire beneath your charcoal to really get it going.

The Kobe Sanda Premium Outlet mall was on the way home, so we stopped there and made a great camping weekend even better. We need a few more bits of gear to be ready for any circumstance, but expect to hear about more camping trips in the near future!