Asagiri Highlands/YMCA Global Eco Village
This is the campsite that all the girls camp together in the last couple episodes of the anime. Shimarin finally accepts her invitation and goes camping with the rest of the Outdoors Club. In the anime they call it Asagiri Highlands (which is the name of the area it’s in) but in real life it’s called YMCA Global Eco Village.
To my horror, they were closed too. Also because of COVID-19. Darn. The guy I was speaking to was very nice though, and attempted some conversation with google translate. He let me use the toilets and said it was fine for me to walk around and take pictures. He even gave me some postcards to try and make up for it. So I ditched my big heavy backpack in front of the reception, and began taking my pictures.
First up are these shots near the entrance.
Then as always, Shimarin goes on a little walk exploring the campsite.
Then she walkes up to the area where she pitches her tent.
After this things got a bit confusing. I’m pretty sure the long grass has been trimmed in different places so it was super hard finding the spots where the Outdoors Club set up their tent, and where Miss Chuggie passes out from booze. I spent aaaages looking around trying to find them. But hey, this is as close as I got. Make what you want of it.
Or maybe they set up their tent here?
After hunting around for half an hour, I didn’t want to overstay my welcome so I headed back to pick up my backpack. One more shot.
After saying my thanks and goodbyes to the nice staff member who I chatted to, I set off back down the road back towards the bus stop.
Next to the bus stop was the Makaino Farm, where Chiaki and Aoi eat their ice cream. But it was closed because of the virus.
I had to wait almost two hours for my bus into fujinomiya, where I had booked a nice capsule hotel for the night. It felt good to treat myself since I’ve basically been sleeping in a closet for the past 3 weeks at the ryokan.
Thankfully there was a nice shelter for me to wait in.
Just before sunset I sat on a grassy bank next to the road hoping to get a picture of the fully red fuji that the girls see at the campsite. But this is as orange as it got.
I made use of the 30x zoom on my new camera and snapped this shot of the peak.
It was pitch black when the bus came to my bus stop. I hailed the bus by waving my phone screen frantically, since it wouldn’t be able to see me otherwise. It almost drove past and had to step on the brakes real hard, screeching to a halt a couple meters past the stop.
The bus ride into fujinomiya was about half an hour, and the hotel was only a 5 minute walk from the station. The hotel was also super rigorous in disinfecting everything, because of the virus. Whenever I left a spot in the hotel, a staff member would come and spray disinfectant all over the area.
10/4/20
I had a nice sleep, and the next day I had a little wonder around Fujinomiya and had lunch, before taking the train back to Minobu.
It was a nice scenic ride which took about an hour.
When I got back to the ryokan one of the cooks told me she’d seen me on TV about Yuru Camp. Darn, I missed it.
So I’m resting here for a day and tomorrow I’ll hike up to Lake Shibire. If it’s closed I’ll try wild camping. Damien talked me into it. After that I’ll head into Kofu, check out Eastwood, then move on to the further out camps that Rin did in Nagano. Stay tuned for part two (or maybe even three).
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