Camping tour 2016: Day one

Yesterday we left Tokyo at 8am and drove north west to meet friends for lunch at Naeda Waterfall near the west coast. It astounds me how narrow Japan is! Granted we didn't start on the east coast, but still, it's only about 1 1/2 hours from our house to the Pacific. 

So great to get out of the city. The greens are gorgeous, there's been a lot of rain. 

This is in the top 100 waterfalls in Japan. It's gorgeous and wasn't hard to get to. Except I'm regretting my footware. It was just a short walk in and I neglected to change out of my comfy sandals into sneakers. It would have been fine except our eldest found a cool trail to where we could get a better look at the waterfall: a mountain goat trail that was more up than anything. My feet are sore today. 

We had delicious ice cream after our short hike and then headed off for our first campsite. 

It was also up and up and up. We drove up a mountain from the expressway for seven kilometers! But the view was worth it. 

Unfortunately a storm blew in not long after I took that photo and nearly blew away our blue tarp. It disrupted dinner preparations, but we did eventually eat, shower, make our tent rain-proof, and get to bed.