Camping

A couple weeks ago (yeah, I know, I'm really on top of things aren't I?) I went camping at Ryuo-zan, a mountin park in Onoda. Here is an excellent panorama from the top.
Tomohiro, the bar master at Happy Talk (far right), had invited me; it was a gathering of bar masters, staff and friends of bars. He's the president of the Ube Bartender's Association, but oddly enough most of the bars represented at the barbecue were non-members. There were about fifteen people there. Food and drinks were handled in a style that I understand is typical for Japanese barbecues: money (¥5000) was collected and then it was all you can eat, all you can drink. The food was delicious, grilled crab, yakiniku (beef), nabe, sazae and onigiri. The setting was rugged, we could barely hear the car stereo because we set up camp a whole five feet from the curb.
Aft photographing the neighboring playground, I spent some time socializing and enjoying the beverages expertly prepared by the attendant bartenders. The master of Miruku (far left) came with fifteen bottles of liquors and liquers. Soon though, I grew tired, having work the next day I chose to collapse into a tent rather early.
I woke up at five. Freezing cold. Outside, I found the barbecue still going with a pot of nabe on top and five or six people sitting around drinking beer and chatting. I borrowed and extra coat and attempted to warm up. Soon the sun came up and we filled an empty beer can with sake and put it on the barbecue to have some warm sake for a sunrise drink. I drank and went back to sleep until I woke up at nine. Boiling hot.