We've been trying to go camping every weekend for the past many weeks, but when the time came close, the forecast showed rain. Camping in the rain with 4 kids seems like something I'm happy to avoid. Finally, this past weekend, the forecast was clear! Saturday showed a cloudy morning, but other than that, clear and sunny, so we prepped!
Guys, the prepping and the cleaning up part of camping is dreadful. I cannot stand it. But I love camping so much, and we had really heard great things about the campsite called Jakuchikyogoryuno (Seven) Falls. A couple of really wonderful benefits of having access to the Marine base here is that they have a service where you go in and they call and set up the reservations for you, free of charge. It's great because....it's usually pretty rough when I call to make a reservation or try to set something up in Japanese. Additionally there is a place called Outdoor Recreation which has ALL sorts of outdoor equipment (skis, snowbaords, sleds, paddle boards, ALL camping gear, tables, chairs, etc) that you can rent...for...FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. SO along with much of our own camping gear I went and rented an additional tent because...in all my wisdom..I realized it'd be so great to have a "KIDS" tent (minus Indie). I wasn't wrong.
So, we packed, we prepped, we shoved everything in the car along with our fire pit because ground fires are illegal here, and we headed out Friday evening, intending to return home Sunday afternoon.
We arrived, it was dusk, the camp host was already gone but we knew to go to campsites 1 and 2, and had a rough idea of where to go. We drove around and around and could not find sites 1 and 2, so we settled for 51 and 52 because there wasn't a single other camper around. We decided we would attempt to explain the following morning when we went to officially check in with the camp host when they arrived.
3am Saturday: cue the rain. The rain that wasn't supposed to come. The rain that we had intentionally avoided for 6 weeks. And it continued, until about noon. The entire time the forecast said "cloudy", in fact. We breakfasted under the back hatch of our van. We spent a lot of time sitting in the car or in the tents, unsure of what to do.
Rainy view from the car
Around 10a the rain turned into a drizzle and we decided to go exploring just a bit while we could. We set out and were not disappointed. A small trail took us from our campsite to the entrance to a lovely little Shinto Shrine, about 5 minutes away. We ascended the stairs through a forest of gigantic pines (or redwoods? or some massive tree that I am unfamiliar with???)
Walking through the Torii gates, symbolizing
leaving the worldly behind, and entering the sacred
It's soooooooooo tall!
Can't...stop...staring...
The coloring on this one though..!?
And when we arrived at the top, there was this quaint, quiet little shrine. Every time I get to a shrine I feel deep gratitude for our current life's situation. I love that these beautiful places are so real, so normal, so every day for us. In fact, we were so excited that at noon, the same music played from this shrine as the shrine that is near our home, over an hour and a half away.
Most Shinto shrines have a place where you literally
and symbolically wash your hands and rinse your mouth
before entering. This one had a dragon spout. Super cool!
A common theme during this entire trip was "Bugs are friends". While up at the shrine, Keane found a giant ant that he kept with him for a solid hour.
Watching Mr. Ant swim in a large puddle up at the top of the shrine
Holland found this shiny, gold bug that she adopted for awhile.
As we walked down the shrine we saw that across the way was a valley full of rice paddy fields. There were small roads that wound in and out of the fields and we decided to wander over that way. The views were incredible with the rice fields in front and the mountains with wispy clouds behind them. I just kept thinking to myself, "I sure don't hate it here."
How perfect are these rows of rice? No matter what direction you
look at them, they line up perfectly. Horizontal, vertical, diagonal...
We wandered in and out of fields, seeing who could find the most salamanders in the flooded paddies, finding cool sticks, and just trying to find nice things to do while keeping our fingers and toes crossed that the weather would continue to clear up.
Indie could not have been more clear about her
disinterest in wearing shoes. For the entire weekend.
Cache's bug of choice was a rolly polly that I'm not entirely
convinced he didn't smash when he picked it up.
When we made it back to camp, we figured it was probably going to continue getting more and more clear. I went to the camp host and she informed me that we were not allowed to stay in spots 51 and 52 because someone else had reserved it for that night. I went out found spots 1 and 2 which were NOT so easy to find, and we started slowly moving our camp over, via several trips in the car. Moving went tents and chairs kinda stinks. But we made it work.
We realized that we would not be alone that night, as many other people started to fill in the camp spots around us. We were instantly grateful we had reserved 2 spots instead of just one, as the sites were only 3.5 m x 3.5 m.
We were the only ones there with marshmallows. Everyone else was roasting gyoza :D
We spent the afternoon setting up camp, drying out our things, and exploring a little bit around. It was difficult because there were SO many other campers there setting up their own camps that we didn't feel like the kids could just run around unattended. In fact, everyone got so grumpy by late afternoon that we considered packing up and just heading home. Did we really want to stay here with 4 grumpy kids, 2 grumpy adults, and 2 wet tents? Meehhhhh we weren't so sure. In fact, I took Cache and Indie on a walk to get them away and try and put some space between everyone so they didn't rip each others eyeballs out of their sockets.
After our super fancy dinner of hotdogs and chili, a really nice family who's campsite was kitty corner to ours invited us to do sparklers with them. It's incredible what a kind gesture and a change of scenery will do! That 30 minutes changed everything. Our kids were able to focus on something other than fighting with each other, and Andrew and I could focus on something other than the kids fighting with each other.
After sparklers, we all went back to our campsites, we said goodnight to our new friends and everyone fell into bed [our sleeping grounds on the ground]. Except, of course, for Indie, for whom I forgot a pack-n-play. She got to wander around the tent crawling all over Andrew and me until she basically passed out in the corner and I pulled her into my sleeping bag. Pro-tip: DO NOT FORGET THE PACK-N-PLAY.
The following morning, Sunday, we made a killer breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and tater tots, and no one was complaining.
We then took our time packing up our things and loading up the car, and got ready to go on a hike before heading home. This hike.....it was incredible. No filters on these pictures, the sun was shining, the forest/jungle was so vivid and green.
We crossed several bridges as we hiked up and around the waterfalls.
More bugs! What looked like a gigantic neon green aphid
Indie, of course, decided to fall asleep at the most inopportune tine: right in the middle of the hike. She didn't seem to mind her head bobbling all over the place though so we just left her alone and let her do her thing.
In the end, we were incredible grateful that we didn't leave early. We were really concerned that our long awaited camping trip would be a total bust and no one would want to go camping again this summer. And it almost turned out that way. But in the end, we left with happy thoughts and memories, new friends, and tired legs.
This is SO magical. I'm glad you guys stayed through the rain. I love how it is a camping story but so foreign and interesting with so many plot twits and of course beautiful shrines. I love this SO much!!!!
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