We took a weekend camping trip to Lake Motosu in Yamanashi Prefecture. We left around 6:00 in the morning. We had largely packed the night before and only had to move everything to the car. We recently purchased these heavy duty storage containers from Muji. They were super durable, had good storage capacity, and could double as a seat. Together with our Costco Instant Crates, we were able to pack the car with minimal trips back and forth.
It was going to be a 3 hour and 30 minute drive from our place in Mito to a grocery store in Fujikawaguchiko. Along the way we made a fatal error. We decided to try out the cars built in GPS system. We set the route and followed it. The problem with the cars GPS was that it did not take traffic into consideration. It took us on the shortest route distance wise. This took us through the downtown Tokyo districts of Shibuya and Shinjuku. In addition we ran into a bunch of stop and go traffic. Since we got stuck in Tokyo traffic, we lost our early morning time advantage. We got caught in more traffic while leaving Tokyo.
The traffic into Yamanashi Prefecture was pretty brutal as well. There were frequent toll gates and a couple of merging situations where the expressway went from three lanes to two. It seemed that many other people had the same idea as us. To breakup the drive we stopped for lunch at the EXPASA Dangozaka Service Area. We were able to stretch our legs, get some delicious food to eat, and buy some souvenirs. Fortunately, when we got back on the road, it opened up considerably and we were able to cruise the rest of the way to Fujikawaguchiko.
When we arrived in Fujikawaguchiko, we stopped by the local Lifelong Learning Center. The center housed a small community center and a pretty large public library. We picked up a manhole card at the front desk of the library.
We then made our way to MaxValu which was located in a fairly large shopping complex. We were a little concerned that the food may have been a little picked over. We were pleasantly surprised to find this was not the case. The supermarket had anticipated a large amount of customers and had prepared accordingly. BBQ was a popular meal option and employees were constantly bringing out new meats to replenish the shelves. We ending up purchasing a little over ¥20,000 worth of groceries. Before heading out, we stopped off at Daiso to pick up some paper plates, cups, and utensils.
It was a scenic 30 minute drive to the campground. The last part of which we skirted along the eastern and northern shores of Lake Motosu. Our friend had booked a 10 person cabin at Koan Camping Ground.
We checked in and made the six or so minute drive to the cabin. It was getting a little dark, so we decided to prep for dinner. We set up our friends small charcoal grill and used the charcoal we had gotten earlier. We decided to skewer the meat. We had chicken and onion, pork and eggplant, and beef and pineapple. The meat cooked quickly and had a nice char taste. We decided to just throw some of the BBQ meat directly on the grill. We finished the night on some delicious gyutan (beef tongue).
Before heading in for the night we utilized the camp provided fire pit. The warm fire felt great as the night got colder. We cleaned up, then headed inside. We set up our air mattress and put our sleeping bags on top of it. We enjoyed nice conversations with our friends late into the night.
Final Thoughts
To make the day not all about driving, we definitely needed to leave earlier. Especially on a national holiday weekend when we knew that there was going to be a lot of traffic. We definitely learned our lesson and will follow our phones Google Maps. What should have been a four hour drive in total, ended up being a little over seven hours. The drive was quite scenic though and along the way we were able to get a number of Pokémon pins and a manhole card. We were also able to try a tasty pork bowl at the EXPASA Dangozaka Service Area and have a filling BBQ dinner.
More to Come…