Our Annual Camping Trip

Every year either in the heat of August or, more recently as the weather cools down a bit, in mid-September, we find ourselves heading to the mountain side for a camping weekend with friends. What started out as a large group adventure several years ago:

has dwindled down to just us "die hards":

Luckily we had a nice, long four-day weekend and spent two leisurely days and nights by this river in Shiga Prefecture. The plan was to go and just sit around in our camp chairs, enjoy a casual read, take quiet walks along the river, etc. And although we actually did these things, it seems most of our time was spent setting up our campsite, getting ready for meals, reorganizing our campsite, going shopping for firewood and outdoorsing-it necessities, cleaning up after meals, covering our belongings in case of rain, complaining about the "noisy" campers who had the nerve to want to enjoy the outdoors the same time we did, then packing up our unbelievably full car loads of gear, etc. "Leisure" is sure a lot of work, I'd decided.

But we did have a wonderfully cozy campfire thanks to Mashi's continuous and meticulous care, nice chats with our good friends, and....our favorite barbequed delights:

lots of veggies, including my favorite..."yamaimo with shiso" (mountain potato with perilla leaves) all dolled up in butter and salt - simple and oh so good!

We also had a new-comer to our feast....mini potatoes skewered on rosemary stalks. Delish!

(We did have other members in our feasting not belonging to the potato clan, but they just didn't make the photo opps.)

Another summer over, another fall in the works. Our Halloween decorations are up and we're ready for our annual Halloween Festival on the 11th! Photos coming soon, we hope, as we keep our fingers crossed for nice weather.