Day 4 of my camping trip with Anthony to Kotobikihama beach (northern Kyoto Prefecture, Japan) was a day full of sun and sand, marred only by a few minutes of wind-driven terror (or, at least, wide-eyed surprise, as my tent almost got blown away).
The night was pleasantly warm, as opposed to the freeze-your-toes-off cold that it had been on previous nights, so that was welcome. Unfortunately, along with the warmth came a howling wind that buffeted the tent in loud gusts that were jarring both mentally and physically. I spent from about 1:30am to 3:00am trying to make sure my tent and Arthur's sunshade didn't get blown [...]
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Day 4 of my camping trip with Anthony started early, as usual, but without the prospect of having to move the tent (as I did the previous day), I looked forward to a day of fun.
(IMAGE: Already Up for Hours) 8:15am, Kotobikihama (Kyoto Prefecture, Japan)
Anthony's new friends had returned home the previous evening, but now he had May and Monet to play with, and added new friends Emma and her older brother, Benjamin, as well.
Kotobikihama beach is large – about a mile long – with several distinct sections. This morning, we headed out to the main part of the beach, which is quite a [...]
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(IMAGE: Day 3: Long Day of Play)
Day two of my camping adventure with Anthony ended pleasantly, with new friends and a nice sunset.
Day 3, however, started much earlier and much less pleasantly than I would have expected – right at midnight – when some rude family burst into the campground with loud voices and bright lights, searching for a spot to set up their tent, then setting it up.
Inconsiderate people suck.
I barely got a few hours of sleep, and was up at 5:30 or so with Anthony and daybreak. Day three was Saturday of Golden Week, meaning that now the crowds would [...]
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(IMAGE: Exploring With New Friends) On the rocks off Kotobikihama beach, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
I ended my previous post about day 2 of camping with Anthony with the story that we'd returned from dinner in time for the sunset.
When we got out of the car at the campsite, Anthony was playing with a superhero toy of some sort that he got at the store. (Because camping is special, “we” decided that he can get a small $2 or $3 toy each day that we happen to go to a store while camping.)
A boy about his age was walking by with his mom, and made [...]
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(IMAGE: Getting Wet)
Picking up my “Camping with Anthony” story from after our early-morning walk on Day 2....
The campground is on a cliff overlooking part of Kotobikihama (northern Kyoto Prefecture, Japan), a large beach more than a mile long, with many distinct sections. We spent the rest of the morning, and the early part of the afternoon, exploring, but it eventually came time to get wet.
Nearest the campground was a section of wide beach fronted by rocky outcroppings....

(IMAGE: Running in the Water is Fun)

(IMAGE: It's Fun to Get Wet)
(IMAGE: View from Near Our Tent) ( Anthony is right [...]
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(IMAGE: Up with the Sun)
Picking up my “Camping with Anthony” story (about my camping trip with Anthony to Kotobikihama beach, in northern Kyoto Prefecture, Japan) from after the end of Day 1....
On the second day, the sun rose at 5:07am, and, unfortunately, that means that we did too.
(IMAGE: View from the Camp)
(IMAGE: Someone Else Up Early Too) ( the early bird catches the, er, fish )
We decided to talk a walk along a path to a big hill we could see along the coast, stopping by a big beach in between that the path dipped down to.
(IMAGE: View Back [...]
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Bringing Home the Bacon
I've been so overwhelmed with built-up stuff to do since returning from camping with Anthony that I've only just started really looking in detail through the photos I took, and came across this interesting shot. At the end of the second day, Anthony was out on some rocks just off the beach and playing with some new friends, and I was with them and enjoying the sunset and conversation with their mom.
I then noticed this bird flying by and something seemed very odd about it, so I quickly snapped the lopsided picture you see above. (I seem to have a [...]
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We started our camping trip last week, May 1st, heading out at about 11am for what should have been about a 3.5 hour drive. Unfortunately, there was some kind of parade that caused the road I happen to have taken to be intermittently closed, turning roads in eastern Kyoto into a parking lot. It took 20 minutes to go half a mile. Not a good start.
Having gotten past that, I thought things would be smooth sailing, but quickly ran into heavy traffic again. I took some side streets and eventually got through the city. What should have been 15 or 20 minutes had taken an hour, [...]
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, f/3.5, ISO 500 — full exif & map — nearby photos (IMAGE: First Evening) Half an hour after sunset.
I mentioned the other day that I was going to take Anthony camping for the first time, and I did. We just got back this afternoon.
I'll write more about the whole experience another day (one that I don't wake up at 5am), but the location was a campground on a cliff overlooking Kotobikihama beach (map) about three and a half hours away by car, in the far north-western corner of Kyoto prefecture.
I took the picture above on our first night, about half an hour after sunset. It [...]
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(IMAGE: Tent Practice)
Fumie grew up going camping several times a year, and has fond memories of it. We're not really the “outdoorsy” type, but we thought it'd be nice to give Anthony the same experience, so we're heading camping for a few days. We borrowed her folks' tent, and her dad and I (and Anthony, of course) practiced setting it up in the living room....
(IMAGE: Doing His Part)



I went to Costco yesterday – there's one an hour south of Kyoto – to get some supplies, but ended up buying a tent. It cost only $120 but is about the [...]
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