miyagi camping trip

abbriviated version of our camping trip in Miyagi ken. Pictures to come.
Started off with a samurai battle reenactment by the banks of the river. It was a lot of waiting around for a little bit of action. Some foreigners got to be Samurai too. Their glorifiying moment was crossing the river in full armor to go to battle the opposing samurai. But now that I know how much waiting around in the blazing sun that that requires, I don't think I will be doing it next year. I did however manage to cross the big river 3 times later that day in my underwear.
Near our camping spot there was a beautiful river with crystal clear waters, chock full of swimming holes and waterfalls, a million times nicer than the Patuxent. but it gave me good memories of home. When we were hiking it was raining a little and the water was so cold that we couldn't swim in it really. I hope to go back there and hang out in the clear river someday soon! Our second night of camping we were happily drinking beers and plum wine and sake, singing along to Jeff and his guitar. Then Jeff plays this demonic death song on his guitar that comes out of nowhere. (It was pretty funny for a death song). After that we go to sing yellow submarine. Despite the massive winds that are going on and the rain around us, we are under a covered area with tables and a cooking fire so things are manageable. Then the wind tarp blows off posts of the covered area and we see our behemoth tent blown over on its side. It was as if Jeff summoned the wrath of the gods with his death song. Craziness ensued for the next hour. Everyone sobered up quickly. And the random jeep that conintually passed our campsite with its headlights didn't reeapear for the next hour. We were like ants in an army trying to dissasemble and reassemble tents. protect everything from the crazy wind. We moved our tents to a grassy area below the toilets. safe at last. 1:30am. Then the weird guy with the jeep starts shining his lights at us. What the hell. How creepy. Jeff and I go over to investigate. The sky is dark with brilliantly lit stars and gray clouds. There is no rain but the wind is still wrapping itself around everything in its path. We approach the jeep. "sumimasen" we call out. But the man in the jeep doesn't answer. It is very weird and odd. I got one of those uncomfortable, this-could-be-dangerous feelings which I rarely ever get in this country. We stand there for 4 minutes calling out to him and shining our light towards his truck and on ourselves. No answer. He drunkinly stumbles out. "mutter mutter mutter, I like my car, mutter mutter mutter" what?! He apparantly lives in the house but decided to hang out in the car parked in the driveway and watch some gaijin entertainment for the night. He was confused. I couldn't sleep for most of the night with the winds howling and creepy drunk man on the prowl. but when I finally did fall asleep, I woke up early the next morning anyways. I saw our drunken friend and he said he had been drinking since 4 am that morning. Which would have meant that he had gone to bed for 2 hours, then woke up at 4 and started drinking again. What?! Anyways, the next day was glorious and beautiful. The wind had pushed away every cloud in sight. We had a nice involved slow food brunch of eggs, fruits, hot coco, tea, yogurt, granola, coffee, juice, ancient salad, onions and tomatos, and fired toasted bread. Delicious and perfect. Later that day we played some fun American touch football. It was weird to play football after being so used to rugby. All the Brittish people were still in rugby mode too. Dorie, was the star of the game. For her first time playing, she scored 2 goals and did really well!