Camping on the mountainside
posted July 22, 2008
Greg and I recently went camping together for the first time. We pitche dour tent at the top of a little valley on the mountainside up above Manshu-in temple. Behind those trees is a waterfall.
Nice! Were you able to find enough firewood?
Yes, but we didn’t let the campfire burn long. Just enough so that he knows what one is, and we could discuss the safety. It was a lot of fun, and he wasn’t really scared of sleeping in the forest with all the animal sounds. When we were settling into our sleeping bags, he had packed a few storybooks to read, and what he wanted to read first was “Where the Wild Things Are,” about monsters in the forest. A pretty gutsy choice, I thought.
It only took me a couple days to recover from the back strain i got in the freak crouching accident (??) last weekend. I’m going to give the bicycle seat a bit of a cleaning before I hand it over to you.
Looks like a really amazing place to visit. I envy thee muchly!
Gotta be careful of the lightning this year!
Blaze in Kyoto
Hi, I was looking for a place to camp in Kyoto, and I found Your blog. Could You tell me something about that place? Do I have to pay a fee? Is this legal and safe to stay there? I’m planning to go to Kyoto at the end of September, is it still warm enough to camp? I would appreciate any advice You could give me.
Thank You! Best regards
Anna
Hi there.
I’m enjoying finding new places to go through your blog.
I ditto what Anna above says. Please give us some more info about the campsite.
Well, it’s not a real campground, just some space away from the city sounds up a riverside mountain path, next to a waterfall. It’s nice because you really sleep out in nature without getting lost. I often go jogging up that path and if it’s summer I can just jump right into the waterfall to cool off at the top. It’s agreat feeling to bathe in a waterfall.
If you look at this Google Maps link you can see the platform where my son is standing in the picture above. It’s the square object in the photo, overlooking a small dam. Upstream from there (right in the Google map) you can barely make out the stream. It goes upstream just another 100 meters or so to a nicer waterfall, about 30 meters beyond my tent in the picture. This is in a steep valley, so there’s only one way up and one way back. You can’t get lost. It’s just about 25 minutes easy hike from this spot at the top of Shugakuin Rikyu Michi where the road becomes a hiking path between farm fields to the south and Shugakuin Rikyu Imperial Villa (reservations required) to the north. Access is from Shugakuin Station on the Eizan line (connecting to Keihan from downtown Kyoto and Osaka) or City Bus No. 5 from Kyoto station (or Nos. 31 or 65) to Shugakuin Rikyu Michi bus stop or Kyoto Bus (brown and cream color) No 17, 23,41 or 43 to Shugakuin.
Maybe I should be renting out tents, sleeping bags and lantern. You can really save money on accommodations, especially during peak tourist seasons.
Hi there… I stumbled upon your blog, as my partner and I are looking for places to camp and hike around Kyoto. How did you find these places? Do you think we could fill five days doing what you did and camping while hiking? I’d really appreciate any tips. Thanks so much and take care… Andrea and Paul
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