Auto Camp At Chichibu Yugure Campsite

In Japan summer holiday for schools starts from the third week of July, of which the third Monday happens to be a National Holiday, the Marine Day. National law establishes Marine Day as a day of gratitude for the blessings of the oceans and to hope for the economic prosperity of maritime Japan (ref. Wikipedia). The third Monday was chosen so that the people can enjoy a long weekend with their children who will start summer vacation during this period.

This year we chose camping for a start. Some people like caravan style, bungalows, backpacking or others, but our favorite is car camping or here it is called "auto camp". All you need is a car with a big enough trunk to put your tent, cooler box, a set of table with chairs and some fresh food for the length of stay.

Children can learn a lot from camping through nature walk, fishing, cooking, learning about team work when making a tent, sharing chores or from just being a part of every activities. Just about two hours from central Tokyo, there is a nice campsite just at the gorge of Oku-Chichibu, called the Yuugure Campsite, one of our favorite spot to visit during summer.

http://www.chichibu.ne.jp/~yuugure/index.htm

There, you can do hiking (from beginners to advanced - up to 6 hours to reach the top of the mountain), fishing for wild fish or home grown fish released in the river, swimming, baking your own bread/pizza in a real Italian type of oven, and just 20 minutes drive from the campsite, you can enjoy a hot bath in a natural hot spring water (onsen).

My daughter caught 7 fish in 3 hours - two of which are wild fish, called "iwana". It was such a thrill for her to be able to catch a very rare fish, that even the adults rarely get to catch one. The fish that we caught are 15 altogether and we have them cleaned and then charcoal grilled... yum!

Winter Flowers and Onsen

Robai (Plum Blossoms)

One of my favorite winter trip is to visit Robai-en, the plum garden in Nagatoro.   The word "garden" is an understatement, for you can see almost the whole mountain dazzling in a beautiful yellow color from the plum blossoms.   These flowers only bloom in the winter time, therefore February (late winter) is the best month to visit. After taking a romantic stroll in Robai-en, taking lots of photos, it is best to have an overnight stay in a ryokan "Japanese inn" and enjoy a a warm hot spring bath, here we call "onsen".   There is a ryokan near Nagatoro, just off Chichibu station, that has private a bath in the room, named Araki Kousen Ryokan.   In Chichibu area there are many choices of ryokan at different level of price.   A good quality and reasonable ryokan starts from 12,000 Yen per person to 20,000 Yen per person (breakfast & dinner included).   A room with a private bath usually costs about 20,000 Yen per person/night.

Check out this railway map on HOW to get to Chichibu station (note: Nagatoro is just two stations away from Chichibu): http://www.seibu-group.co.jp/railways/tourist/rosen.pdf

Check out also Official Site for Chichibu town:

http://www.city.chichibu.lg.jp/cgi-bin/odb-get.exe?wit_template=AC010000&wit_oid=icityv2::CommonGenre::1487&m=1&d=

Onsen

The Japanese love hot springs (onsen) and many people head for one when they go on holiday,

 especially in the winter time.   Onsen is known to be effective in curing various type of minor illnesses (in fact there are some onsens that are especially well known for healing certain illness, such as skin problems, poor blood circulation, joints/muscles aches, etc.)

In the past hot springs are used for both women and men, where they bathe together or the so called mixed bathing.  However nowadays, women and men bath separately and there are only very few onsens allowing mixed bathing.

Various types of onsen: 

*rotenburo (=open-air bath) where you can see natural surroundings outside, usually located in the garden, by the river, by the ocean

*myoban onsen (=bath with oranges) where they put oranges (unpeeled) into the baths, known to be effective as beauty treatment

*mushiburo = similar to that of sauna, except that the steam is made from the hot spring water entering through a pipe)

*sunamushiyu = hot sand bath, where the bather steams his body by burying himself in hot sand, the sand is heated using hot spring water.