Have you heard of the g8 summit? Well, this year it’s happening in Hokkaido at Toya lake.
We took a camping trip to Toyako (which is Toya lake in Japanese in case you haven’t figured that out already..) last week. Aside from the super high security highway checks, it was more than beautiful.
We bought a tent from Costco a while back for 6000 Yen (that is 56CDN as of Jun 23 2008). This trip was the first time for us to use the tent. We found a campground which allows open fire. (Our campground - 仲洞爺キャンプ場. Here’s a great website for looking for campgrounds in Hokkaido: camp navi hokkaido). In Japan, it’s not very common for people to camp and have open fire. It is usually not allowed in camp grounds. Moreover, it is also not common for people to camp just at the middle of no where. People usually camp in camp grounds. We had our doubts about it before this trip, but due to high security around the Toyako we decided that it is best to stay out of trouble by staying in a campground.
Our campground is really not what you think it is. It is still the middle of no where, but with running water and toilets. (In our case, it also had a onsen nearby - 来夢人の家) We set camp RIGHT by the lake. We had an open fire going right by the water and we fell asleep listening to the sound of the lake (and rain for the first night.) We were blessed with beautiful fireworks on the lake as part of Toyako’s attraction during summer. It was really quite romantic to be snuggling under big umbrellas, drinking beer, eating bbq steak and watching the fireworks by the lake.
The tent held up to the rain the first night. We had minor leakage but it was very fixable problem with a little help from garbage bags. Kevin went outside with a giant sun umbrella at the middle of the night with gold miner head flashlight to attach garbage bags to the corners of the tent. After that, we stayed dry and comfortable inside. Thankfully for the tent being a 3-person tent, we had plenty of space. Kevin, as a giant, had to sleep diagonally in the tent.
We woke up at 6′o clock in the morning and find ourselves facing a beautiful calm lake with white mists and swans swimming by. (there were so many swans, they even tried to come on shore to attack us and steal our food, in our imaginary scenario that’s what they’d do of course.)
We had delicious Jingisukan (ジンギスカン) and yakiniku (焼き肉) and cheesy japanese pinky sized cocktail weinies and of course, marshmallows. We toured the town of Toya during the day and visited the Sun Palace Hotel onsen and the brand new super-eco toyako visitor center that’s dedicated to greeness. There were fields of solar panels and wind generators around the beautiful new log house. G8 is definitely bringing Toya new life.
Our trip goes on to Hakodate after Toyako. More to come.
We will go through photos and upload them slowly. Will insert photos later.
Nice post Cathy…. were there other campers - or did you have the place to yourself? Sounds like a perfect adventure in your new tent!