Outdoor Adventure in Nagano Prefecture

Taking a 4 hour bus ride from Shinjuku, Tokyo, 

I've decided to join a friend for some outdoor adventure in Nagano Prefecture.

One way was around 4000yen. Which is around 50 bucks.

After sleeping for the most of the time on the bus (I'm so used to travelling on the bus now)

I've arrived to my destination in the afternoon.

And then one of the other participants of the camp picked me up at the station and drove us to

our final destination "Morikura".

I really didn't know what the place was about. All I knew was that I had to prepare myself for the cold and that we are going to be outside for most of the time.

And once I got to the bottom of one of the mountains, although I brought some boots to wear for the weekend, I was told to change into these. 

The owner then putting some of our stuff on the homemade sleigh, brought up our belongings up the mountains.

The rest of us who were left behind walked up to the camp site.

On the way I saw a huge dam.

I really haven't seen such nature in a while so I was super super excited at this point.

Everyone was carrying huge backpacks.

Also on our way, one of the guy took us to his tree house.

The concept of this treehouse is that they pick one big tree as the main pole for the house. And after they pick that one tree, they will pay for that one tree and will be given the materials to build the rest of the tree house on your own.

This is the guy who showed us around's treehouse.

They leave most of the belongings behind.

The inside was bigger than I thought. People will sleep in sleepingbags.

If I were to have a family in Japan I would love to make one of these with my kids :)

When I got to the site, the kids were already playing with the snow.

My friend then showed me around the place.

This place is run with no electricity and all the buildings are handmade by the owner.

These tree houses were made by kids.

I had some coffee to drink before we went on a little hike. 

This is the kitchen area.

My lunch. Cold bread, cold cheese, cold sausage, and raisin bread.

Food like this that you eat in the middle of the mountain is pretty tasty.

This is the living room area of the main house.

Books on insects, plants, and anything outdoors.

The water is constantly running because the water pump/pipe will freeze and the whole thing will burst if its ever stopped.

Lots and lots of pans.

Lots and lots of plates.

And cups

And spoons.

After a little rest at the cottage we took a little hike around the mountains.

There are no roads or trails that is ready for us to walk. We just go the way we like.

When going form a high area to a low area we usually just use our bums and slide downhill.

As the owner explains the function of a forest and the names of the plants we walk around the forest.

This time we had 8 participants staying over at the camp. It was my first time meeting most of them.

My colourful snow pants I borrowed.

On our way we found dungs.

The kids hard at listening to the knowledge and skills from the owner.

If I remember correctly this is scratch marks from the antlers.

Left overs of the chipmunk. 

There were probably many chipmunks and squirrels eating in this area.

We also saw some wild monkeys walking around the area. There were at least 10 of them in a crowd!

The only foot prints we see are by animals or by us.

One of the boy standing on the ice.

One of the adults trying to stand on the ice but he was too heavy for it and the bottom started cracking. 

We found a bunny on top a tree!

After fully reaching the bottom of the mountain, we go up the mountain again to go back to our cottage.

Up and up and up we go!

We finally see our cottage site.

To explain a little bit more about this place. 

It is officially called 

"Mori no Kurashi no Sato".

Many kids and adults gather around this camp site to enjoy the nature and to understand about the nature. They have many activities through out the year, from making tree houses, hiking, hot spring digging, etc. 

Another amazing part of this place is that the owner is a very understanding person and is full of knowledge of many things. If you have anything you want to do, I am sure he will be up for it.

Living in Tokyo which is very urban, you sometimes forget what it's like to go back into the wild. And here you can really connect with the nature and with the people around you.

I really recommend coming back to places like this once in a while to think and look back at what type of environment you live daily and respect and thank what you have right now.

I forgot to take a big picture of where I stayed at. This is a blurry picture of where I stayed. I think...

Girl's washroom.

After our 2 hour? hike we have to now prepare for dinner.

We burned one guy's chair he bought with this ex-gf. haha

Ah~ the memories lol.

Drinking while preparing for dinner is amazing.

While the adults prepare for dinner.

The kids and I play around.

I really love the shape, the colour, the everything about these old style lamps give out.

We then move our big pot outside.

Grilling our fishy.

They all have these head lights. AWESOME!

This is rice on a stick.

And this is our soup with lots and lots of veggies and meat.

And my very burnt rice stick.

Watching fire makes me calm.

We ended up drinking some beer, watching fire, and talking about various topics until we all became tired.

I really enjoyed talking about topics I usually wouldn't discuss with my friends with the other campers.

It was indeed and excellent and fabulous time.