It took roughly a month for my next camping trip after my initial two day trip. I left of with an appetite to show my coworker I can get my setup beyond basic, so this one features new gear!

• A cot, replacing the self-inflating mattress which took up a lot of space
• A smaller (and better) pillow
• A table
• Cooking supplies
• Compact Cassette Gas Burner
• Solid Fuel firestarter
• It's hard to see, but there is a moving blanket under the cot, I was worried without it I could damage the tent interior.

This campsite (Sea & Sun Auto Campground https://maps.app.goo.gl/6Hpa4epBQgHGJJPR9) was quite nice, shielded from the coastal winds from all sites and I was able to pick a spot out of view of other campers. I liked the ground too.

The moving blanket gets strapped and secured atop the motorcycle bag with the blue shock cord you can faintly see in the pic when zooming in. It actually takes up a lot of space as I choose a big size.

I also prepared audiobooks of my favourite series, Spice and Wolf and started listening to that during setup and the rest of the day.

For cooking, I wanted to take a step forward, I had two cooking methods prepped, a gas cassette burner and a tiny portable grill that uses solid fuel firestarters. Instead of sourcing my food from the konbini and eat as-is, I wanted to cook a bit.

Unfortunately I absolutely fucking sucked at it lmao. I prepared some sausages and bacon, when it came time to cook, it became extremely clear, extremely fast, that a gas burner outputs WAY TOO MUCH energy and my shit burned and smoked almost instantly. I thought "ok ok, maybe not gas, lets try the other thing" and this one... is too underwhelming. Sure, it can get things warm, but these solid fuel firestarters don't output enough energy to cook themselves. Oh well, warm sausages and half burnt bacon it is.

The night was...not good. See, I am a side sleeper, I can not for the life of me sleep on my back. But I did not know/realize that cots are not made for side sleepers. Even with my usual alcohol I could just not fall asleep, I was watching the hours go by, creeping closer to morning, and I knew I had to set down early due to an incoming typhoon hitting the area. At 4 am I tried a hail mary and just tried sleeping directly on the ground, on top of the moving blanket and... was actually able to get 1.5 hours in. Not much, but enough to make it back safely.

Coming back, lesson learned, cot is compact, but not for sleeping, need to find an alternative. I also wanted to lock in cooking. I finally realized the actual meaning of the "no fires" rule all campsites had I visited so far. It's "no open fires". So for the next trip I wanted to prepare a portable fire pit I've seen others use. I've also wanted to try out another tent. The popup is nice for convenience and space, but I don't like driving with it on my back as it limits my visibility and makes me a more susceptible to wind coming in, so next post will include a new tent, yay.

Bonus Pics:

[This one is long and represents a special moment to me.]
After setting out from Awaji Island, I had quite a long and windy drive to arrive at the Nagisaen Campground (https://maps.app.goo.gl/69vMYRcDJ5H9qH28A) and wow what a different experience from the first. The site was huge, offered many different ways of camping and very well maintained to boot! Biggest problem for me was the Japanese Summer, it was around 1pm when I arrived and temperatures where reaching 38C in the sun. It took me about 2 hours to set up the tent and everything, I had to continuously lie down after hammering in a peg to not pass out from heat stroke and drink tons of water. It did not help that I had a lot of issues with the pegs and this ground. You see, this tent came with cheap little aluminum pegs and the ground was surprisingly hard, I bent a few of them and they refused to penetrate the ground.

Thankfully there was also a shop with some camping supplies on the site. This was all new to me, I didn't even realize different peg styles existed. I talked to the clerk and had them recommend me pegs that are sturdy and would last me. I bought 8 heavy duty steel nail pegs and they've been my go to ever since. After a bit more struggle with the heat and my new pegs, I finally nailed everything down (it was very windy that day, so I was relieved when it was all done. You can probably tell from the picture I might have tightened my guy lines a bit too much hehe.

Anyway I teased last post that it was this one that made me fall in love with it, so what happened? Well as the sun set slowly, I got a bit loose with my drinking, I chatted up the staff as we watched the sunset together, there was also another foreigner there who joined in. IIRC he was doing a bicycle trip across Japan and happened to camp here today too. I don't get to speak Japanese much, but the alcohol really helps loosen me up and it felt great making this random connection.

But that wasn't all, when I settled back in my chair I noticed the moon rise close to where the sun set and something else, a star close by with it.

It made me think...really think and something snapped inside me and I started crying. I've been in Japan for almost 9 years but I could not remember the last time I looked up at the sky and see stars. I've been grinding grinding grinding, myself, my sanity, my job and things have been going faster and faster and faster, especially after Covid, ESPECIALLY nowadays with the direction tech is going... I never took the time to stop and look at the sky. This is the moment a flip switched inside me. I need to take this time. I need to make the decision and take that time, else I lose myself in the endless brainrot of current existence. I want to stop and look. Look at the scenery, look at the sky. I want to see stars. And I want to use camping to pause and disconnect, even if for just a day. I also set an explicit goal: I want to see a clear sky with a sea of stars, surely there is a campsite somewhere in Japan that is far enough from light pollution to experience that. I want to find that site and experience it!

With the profound part out of the way, there is also something silly to all this. Being all emotional and setting these goals, my mind drifted and wanted to know, what is THIS star I am looking at? Why is it so clearly visible despite being in the middle of a city and so close to sunset? I did some research and... it's not a star, lmao. This is just fucking Venus! The sun just set in that direction and it was just reflecting a shit ton of light back and appear as a "star". I felt a bit silly crying over a star that turned out to be a fake, but thats life too, isn't it? As it became proper dark I managed to catch some true stars faintly in the sky, able to chuckle about what happened. Anyway, after more chatting and drinking with the staff and the other guy, I bought some Yuru Camp merch (maybe this is a campsite showcased in the anime?) and eventually passed out. It was easier this night, probably due to the alcohol, but also because the wind moved air quite a bit inside the tent, so it was less torturous in terms of humidity.

Next day came, I could still feel some alcohol at sunrise, so I took it slow with packdown, read a bit more of my book and by the time checkout time approached I felt fine enough to hit the road. Going into Tokyo is always hell as highways are congested and on the final leg of the journey, me, my tent and all my gear got completely drenched in a local massive rainshower over Tokyo. Not fun, but hey, I have gear to dry and my next trip to plan! After all, I shared the above story about the star on a work social slack channel and a coworker also into bike camping called my setup "bare bones basic" and that means I gotta get more gear and convince him otherwise, right?! I do have a silly competitive streak to me that can drive me sometimes. The next posts you will see that streak drive me to more and more ridiculous setups, so stay tuned for next time.

Bonus Pics:

I've wanted to share my journey for a while with someone. This community does not seem very active, so I figured, maybe some frequent posts can bring some life back and more discussions going. I plan to post every few days until I am caught up with the present day (as of this posting, I am 20 camps in).

I have never been camping before in my life before this year. Pretty much from the start of the year tho I felt this pull to disconnect from technology, slow things down and my mind settled on camping. It combo's with my love of driving my bike. I don't really talk to much people, so the whole journey was me trying things and sometimes get silly. I slowly gathered all the gear for the first trip. Me being inexperienced I settled on a pop-up tent. It's so insanely easy to set up and set down! I carry it on my back as it folds down to a circle shape. Then I got a large bag to put on my bike, a self-inflating mattress, a chair, pillow, peg hammer and sleeping bag. Back then I thought "no way I can ever carry more, this bag is full" - oh how silly past me was (things will quickly escalate in a few posts). After a test drive confirming everything fits I finally decided on a first trip. You'd think the first time I would choose something close, where I could bounce if necessary. No, that's not me. I wanted to go hard. The plan was to take the ferry from Tokyo to Tokushima, then make 2 or 3 stops along the way as I drive back to Tokyo.

This picture is from the first stop after the ferry. It's a campsite called Fukiagehama (https://maps.app.goo.gl/xdmmoFyXmHKB42cG6) on Awaji Island. This was back in July - peak summer in Japan. I got some food from the Konbini on the way, so this is definitely not hardcore camping lol. Watching the sunset, reading a book, drinking some strong zeros, the experience was amazing. Until night came and it was time to sleep. There was almost no wind on this site as it's well shielded, so the humidity was crushing, I was very sweaty and it was hard to fall asleep, thankfully I packed some Melatonin and the alcohol also helped.

Amenities on the campsite were okay, although showers and toilet were a bit unmaintained. It was a good experience, but did not hook me or make me excited yet about camping (that happens tomorrow). Woke up at 5 am the next day with the sunrise, set everything down and made my way to my next destination...

Bonus pics, wide shot and ferry ride:

I've only been going camping since around July but I have about 20 diary entries I would like to share somewhere with someone. But I don't want the community to feel I'm spamming, so I want to check if it would be okay to post my journey camp by camp, daily or weekly. My hope is to get the comm more active and regular.

Truth be told I already did this...while on an instance with federation issues, so sorry to the 2 people who have already seen the posts if this is ok.