Cold Camp Coming Soon

View from the campsite.

Family traditions. We keep hearing that these are important for families like ours who make big moves and switch cultures. One tradition we apparently established last term was a camping trip at the end of November, during the long weekend for American Thanksgiving. Our boys have fallen in love with this trip and the campsite.

Blue skies are gorgeous and unusual in Tokyo
so we soaked this up. But they do equal cold nights.
This is the Park Golf course.

Go and have a look at the link above if you don't remember this camping trip, because it amazes me that they're excited about it. It is COLD at this time of year. Temperatures fall below zero at night. There's ice! 

We've done it three times before and these are the things the boys remember with joy:

• large swing at the campsite—the sort you wouldn't put your two-year-old on, the ground drops away down the mountain as you swing out
• park golf—a form of putt-putt or mini golf but played on a more natural park-like course)
• flying foxes—or zip lines
• onsen—very warm public baths, most welcome when the weather is cold
• sparsely occupied campsite—it's cold, remember
• apples—there's an apple farm nearby and we stock up on cheap, but delicious fruit

Even our least enthusiastic camper is excited that this week David booked us our spot at the campsite for next month.

Camping has become a tradition for us, something we can do wherever we're living. But this particular camping trip has especially become something that means "home" to the boys. I'm so glad! (But I'll be packing lots of layers.)