September 21st, Kuni (those of you at the wedding will remember Kuni) and his girlfriend Yasuko came over for the weekend.  We went to the bbq restaraunt (again those of you from the wedding will remember that place well) and on the 22nd we went camping at a site close to our town.  There are a lot of campsites around this area but for me this was my first camping trip in Japan so I was pretty excited.

We were lucky, rain only fell for about 20 seconds and only slightly at that.  Genchan and Sayochan dropped by in the evening and we had nabe (hotpot) for dinner on the fire.  Kuni had to attend a work funeral but he showed up later on.

The showers at the campsite shut down at 10pm and since none of us planned to go to bed anytime near 10pm, we were a little troubled.  Genchan works at a golf course nearby so he had us all over to have a bath in the posh golf club bath (not coed but hey, sure beat the campground showers!)

At a Japanese bath (and when you have a bath at home in Japan) you wash your body outside of the bath using the shower BEFORE you get in the bath.  This keeps the bath water clean for the next person (another piece of rare logic).  In other words the baths are for soaking.  And they are HOT, but boy does it feel good afterwards.

I was bored sitting around the campsite in the afternoon so I decided to go for a hike up the mountain.  There was a beautiful view up there so I talked everyone into doing it again the following day.  Up behind the campsite there was a small lake and there was a Buddha on the roadside by the lake.  Things like this you just don't see at home. 

It was just a one night camping trip but a good time for all (I think).  Camping is over for this year for me (got snowboarding to look forward to!)  but hopefully we will all get together and do it again next year.