Before you ask about summer...

These books are great resources for a road trip.
They show a lot of detail,
including the location of campsites.

Yes, it is that season where people (especially in the international community) start to ask about summer plans. School is "out" for more than ten weeks, so we need to do something!

It's going to be a big camping trip in Japan. It was only last Thursday that we got back from our latest camping adventure, but we're already planning the next one (and no, it doesn't involved motorbikes). This one has been on our minds ever since we had such a good time camping around Hokkaido. 

We're planning to spend a couple of weeks in mid-July driving and camping in areas we've never driven before. You can see from the map that it's a large circuit through several prefectures. This takes in famous places like Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Nagoya, and Nagano, though I'm thinking we won't be spending much time in the big cities. We do want to see some of the sights in Kyoto. It is a place that CAJ's 8th graders go for two days in March and our youngest son is going to miss that trip as we'll be in Australia during his grade eight year. 

The circuit also takes in the largest lake in Japan (Lake Biwa) and the highest waterfall Nachi no taki (at only 133m it isn't all that high by world standards, but it will do us, it's in a particularly isolated but beautiful corner of Japan).

The trickiest part is finding time to look for and book campsites (mostly David's job). Life continues to be busy with most Saturdays in the coming six weeks taken up with track and field meets. But we're excited at the possibilities. The boys are even making excited noises periodically when we talk about it. But it is also shocking to realise how fast the year has gone since we arrived back from Australia!

If you've travelled or live in these areas, please drop me a line with suggestions for good tourist possibilities (or campsites) for a family of teen and preteen boys who don't like shopping, art galleries, or inner-city areas much (mum and dad love museums and history, but the boys don't cope with much of those either). Neither are we looking for expensive ways to spend our time.