Eastwood Camping Grounds
After that I headed down the hill to Pinewood Auto Camping Grounds, or Eastwood in the anime. Unexpectedly it was downhill all the way, which I found out later Aoi comments about in the anime.
Eventually I made it to the turn off point to the campsite.
I think the sign in the anime would have been here, but it’s not here anymore. Looks like the road has been paved over too.
I turned off and headed down the road to the site. Here’s a shot of the entrance. The log sign matches apart from the name change.
And that’s unfortunately where the pictures for Pine Wood will finish, and I’ll explain why. When I entered the gate, it was totally empty. I was hoping to find some sort of entrance building so I could ask for permission to take pictures. I wondered up and down the road for about 5 minutes, looking for someone, when I heard someone shout, quite angrily at me “dareda!?” (meaning “who is that”)
I followed the shout and found the man. He didn’t look very happy. I asked “Shashin wa ii desu ga?” which is rough Japanese for “are photos ok?”. He responded with a very loud and agressive “dame!” (meaning “not ok”) and started on a very scary rant at me. I heard “Yuru Camp” come up in his rant a few times. So maybe the exposure of his campsite brought too many Yuru Camp fans, and he didn’t like it. I was told by someone online that he heard of an incident of someone trespassing because of it. Well, I can see why he was angry, but I myself didn’t do anything wrong. I apologised to him and left, since I was clearly unwanted. I could tell it wasn’t worth trying to negotiate.
I won’t post any more pictures of the campsite out of respect for him. I checked the reviews on google maps and found a lot of complaints of the nature of the owner, so I’m definitely not alone in my opinions. Maybe after this whole coronavirus thing is over I’ll come back and have a chance to camp here.
I went back the way I came, past the fruit park and down the hill. I bought a milk tea from a vending machine and enjoyed it at that bodgey viewpoint I passed on the way up.
Just before I reached Yamanashi station I was feeling rather peckish. And right on cue I passed by a yakitori stand that wasn’t there when I passed in the morning. Lucky me.
I ate my yakitori on the bridge, and went back to Yamanashi station to catch my train back into Kofu.
And that wraps up part 2. A bit annoying I couldn’t do Pine Wood but hey, shit happens. As I’m finishing this up I’ve already done part 3, sort of. I was able to hike up to Tsuesugi Pass (which was closed), but because of the nationwide lockdown that was announced a few days ago I’ve decided to go back home to Jersey. Really miffed that I have to miss Takabotchi, the doggy temple and Jinbagatayama. While I technically still could, I’m not going to be selfish and irresponsible and travel around during a state of emergency. And since there’s not much else to do I might as well head home.
Stay tuned to hear about Tsuesugi pass and Suwa lake (the one used as the model for Your Name!).
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