My year in Japan: Camping & roadtrip 14th-17th of July

Hi!

As the title says, we had a short camping and roadtrip in the middle of July, between all the school stress. Sorry for posting it like 2 months late, but like I've said before, I was just too busy to write it before...

We were 13 people in total, divided to a 8-person van and a 5-person car. I was in the car with 4 guys the whole trip, 3/5 of us being Finns, lol. Both of our drivers were French, our driver was driving wrong side and automatic for the first time, you can imagine we were all nervous at first but he survived really well!

Friday 14th we left after school and drove to the first campsite. There was a problem with the van group as the driver had not translated his license and we thought they could not make the trip at all, but luckily they managed to rush to the office for translation and they drove couple hours later than us. The trip took like 4 hours and we stopped every once in a while to konbini and arrived closer to midnight in the Asahikawa 21seiki no mori (旭川２１世紀の森) campsite. We looked for a spot and put one tent up and sat down and chatted in the moonlight. The others arrived after 1am and put up the other tent. Some went to sleep, some talked a bit more before everyone went to sleep.

This sticker was attached to our car

The next morning sun woke us up after 5am as the tents turned into saunas... Morning routines and breakfast outside before we drove to Hokkaido's highest mountain, Mount Asahidake (2291m). Apparently we drove wrong way for some time, didn't bother though as I liked those car drives (haha cars were one of the few places with air conditioning).

Preparing for the hike and we got up with a ropeway and started over 2h hike towards the top. It was a hot day so it was nice the air got cooler the higher we got. First we had sun, then it turned to cloudy so didn't see anything from the top eventually... The hike was tougher than we all thought but we all made it, some faster than the others. Took photos and ate and got back down in an hour, it was very slippery though.
Once we got down, we went to an onsen which was relaxing, but got headache afterwards. After the onsen we drove to the next campsite in Biei. Food from supermarket and people grilled them as we had a small grill with us. Tents up, drinking and chatting, we also walked around the campsite that formed a circle. There were no lights on the other side so we had to walk with flashlights which was bit creepy haha. This campsite also had more people than previous one so it was okay to talk later, I was exhausted though and didn't stay up until morning hours like some others did.

The first campsite

Somewhere on the way to Mount Asahidake

There's our destination!

On the top!

The onsen place. This is my friend's photo.

Sunday morning we could sleep bit longer. Breakfast and cleaning again, Finnish guys made salmari from the Turkish peppers I had with me. It started to rain when we got our cars packed. First we went to the Blue Pond (青い池) that looked amazing! We walked around, took photos and moved on to the next place that was the highest onsen of Hokkaido, the Tokachidake onsen (十勝岳温泉). The serpentine roads there reminded me of the trip to the Alps with my father many years ago. :'3
It was lovely to stay in the outside pool with lovely views, the rain and the lovely company of other girls! We stayed there for long haha. After cleaning up we ate in the onsen and while waiting in the hallway, one of the tutor students from last year came in with her friends! It was a funny coincidence and we talked for a bit, it was good to see her again!

The view from Tokachidake onsen. My friend's photo.

From the onsen we drove to Furano and went to Tomita lavender farm (ファーム富田) which was a cool place as well! I bought some stuff and ate lavender ice cream that was pretty good, reminded of some other familiar favour, just don't know what, heh. We walked around the farm, took lots of photos and returned to the cars and drove to the last campsite in Lake Kanayama (金山湖). The place surprised us all by its beauty. It was nice to finally arrive when it was still daylight. Tents up and fire to the grill, it started to get dark soon. Grilled for some hours, ate and drank and listened to music. There were lots of bugs like in all the campsites (oh the amount of mosquitoe bites when we got home...). After eating we sat closer to the beach and talked more, the atmosphere was lovely! One of us suggested skinny dipping and soon people went to the lake naked, it was pitch dark but we had lanterns in the beach, it was so much fun!
After skinny dipping we dressed up and continued talking in the beach, some people went to sleep. Foxes stole one girl's bag with phone and everything there, never found it the next day...

The ones who were still awake, gathered inside the other tent and we had a massage circle before we started to sleep as well. The next morning everyone woke up in good health, it was cloudy but warm and some went for a morning swim. As I was already wearing my swimsuit, I got out from my sleeping bag and walked straight to the lake. The water was warm and it was nice to swim after a loooong time (this lake was actually the only place I swam during the whole exchange...).
After swimming we had breakfast outside again, grilled smores too. It started to rain but it didn't stop us. Then slowly we started to pack up things and load the cars. Final group photos and started to drive back towards Sapporo. The van had to be returned by 4pm so the van group went ahead, we had time until 8pm so we drove slower and stopped by the Chidorigataki waterfall in Yuubari. Driving back we listened to our countries' music (lots of Finnish songs hehe) and arrived to Sapporo around 4pm, returned the car and went home.