{"id":808,"date":"2008-05-08T10:14:55","date_gmt":"2008-05-08T01:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-05-08\/808"},"modified":"2008-05-11T23:33:50","modified_gmt":"2008-05-11T14:33:50","slug":"camping-with-anthony-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-05-08\/808","title":{"rendered":"Camping with Anthony: Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

We started our camping\ntrip<\/a> last week, May 1st, heading out at about 11am for what should have\nbeen about a 3.5 hour drive. Unfortunately, there was some kind of parade\nthat caused the road I happen<\/span> to have taken to be intermittently closed,\nturning roads in eastern Kyoto into a parking<\/span> lot. It took 20<\/span> minutes to go\nhalf a mile.<\/span> Not a good<\/span> start.<\/p>\n\n

Having gotten past that, I thought<\/span> things would be smooth sailing, but\nquickly ran into heavy traffic again. I took some<\/span> side streets and\neventually got through the city. What should have been 15 or 20 minutes had\ntaken an hour, and the bulk of the trip lay before us.<\/p>\n\n

At this point, just as we're starting to move freely – I kid<\/span> you\nnot – comes the first “Are we there yet?” from Anthony. It was not<\/span>\nhis last.<\/p>\n\n

Once I got out of the city and onto the Kyoto Tanba Expressway, traffic\nwas eerily light, and we made excellent time. Despite having stopped once\nto eat, we arrived to the campsite at about 3:30.<\/p>\n\n

One thing that I noticed during the drive was that the price of gas was\nhigher than it had been recently. Premium gas was running at $6.40\/gallon,\nwhile it had been only $4.84 for much of the previous month. A\n“temporary” gas tax created in the 70s that had been extended\never since was allowed to expire last month in what as best I can<\/span> tell was\nmuscle-flexing by some minority politicians. Of course, in Japan as\nanywhere, the phrase “temporary tax” is a euphemism<\/span> for\n“permanent tax that we're trying to slide in there under the\nradar” because once it's been levied, “temporary” or not, that income\nstream becomes a vested<\/span> right in the eyes of the politician.<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, I guess<\/span> ruling party got around to reinstating the tax, and thus\nthe price of gas went up just in time for Golden\nWeek<\/a>, perhaps the busiest travel week of the year.<\/p>\n\n

So, we arrived at the Kotobikihama\nKakezuki Campground<\/a> and looked for a spot.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f\/3.5-5.6 VR @ 32 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f<\/span>\/4, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nWe'll Put the Tent Here<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I had bought the\ntent<\/a> the day before, so lugged it from the car and opened it up the\nfirst time where I intended<\/span> to erect it. It was huge<\/i>. Some of the\npoles, when put together, were 17.5 feet long. It turns<\/span> out that the spot I\npicked<\/span> was just<\/i> large enough for the tent, but didn't really allow\nenough room around the tent for me to put it up. It was a<\/span> challenge, to say\nthe least.<\/p>\n\n

I was also shocked at how much pollen came off the pine trees if you\nbrushed against them. Huge clouds of yellow erupted with every little\nmovement, quickly coating everything in a layer<\/span> of yellow dust. And as I<\/span>\nfound out later, the “yellow dust” was not the least bit water soluble,\nwhich made for an even bigger mess when it got wet. At least<\/span> neither of us\nwere allergic.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f\/3.5-5.6 VR @ 32 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>30 sec, f<\/span>\/4.2, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nChecking Out the Inside<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

My only prior experience with camping is a couple<\/span> of two-week long trips\n15 or so years ago, bringing a tent<\/span> and whatever else I could<\/span> carry on my\nsmall motorcycle (a Honda<\/span> CBR250RR), riding around the back roads of Honshu\n(Japan's main island). I would<\/span> be sure to stop by a convenience<\/span> store each\nafternoon to pick up dinner, then ride into the mountains and find an old\novergrown access road (there are plenty left over from the copious dam\nconstruction that permeates Japan), and take that further into the\nwilderness. I'd try to<\/span> find a flat<\/span> spot, and set up camp for the\nevening.<\/p>\n\n

The campground for the current trip was much less “wild”. It\ncost $30\/night (plus $10\/day for parking, so a one<\/span>-night stay is $50!), but\nthey provide bathrooms, cold running water, a place<\/span> to dispose of trash,\nand vending machines with cold drinks. There's no hot shower, but one can\nbe had by making a 10<\/span>-minute walk down to the neighboring beach, to what\namounts to a stand<\/span>-alone coin-operated shower standing at the edge of a big<\/span>\nparking lot, with the size, shape, and general décor of a porta<\/span>\npotty.<\/p>\n\n

All in all, not very rough.<\/p>\n\n

So after having set up the tent, Anthony and I took<\/span> a short<\/span> drive to the\nnearest town to find a convenience<\/span> store, and on the way back as we passed\nthe porta-potty showers, we came over a rise<\/span> and was greeted with what\nturned out to be the nicest sunset of the whole trip.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f\/3.5-5.6 VR @ 170 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>100 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nSunset, Day 1<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

As it came into view, even five-year-old Anthony exclaimed “wow.” It\nwasn't particularly spectacular – no huge fireworks of color –\nbut it was nice and a wonderful<\/span> subtle color permeated the scene.<\/p>\n\n

After returning to our tent, we set up our chairs next to each other and had our first\ncamping meal together, a not<\/span>-very-good convenience-store bento (boxed lunch). I then pulled<\/span> out\nmy tripod<\/a> and took the shot shown\nat the top of previous post<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

We went to bed soon after...<\/p>\n\n

Continued here...<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>

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 [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,18,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}