Restless 6 - Sleeping Under the Stars・IS THIS ZETTELKASTEN?
My daughter exploring the forest path (supervised of course) while camping in Iida, Nagano.
This month we went on two camping trips, one in the mountains of Nagano and one along the coast of Mie.
Camping is never as easy as it should be but it is usually worth the effort. Sleeping out in the elements every now and then should be a normal part of one’s existence, and for most of humanity for most of the time that was the case. Plenty of times I’ve walked or cycled over a mountain pass and wondered if anyone long ago chose to sleep right there at the top. A night under the stars is a chance to rediscover the inner adventurer and unlock the nomadic existence buried deep within the DNA of us all. An easily accessible antidote to modern city life. In theory anyway. But despite all the benefits I still sometimes ask if it’s worth it.
For the past few years I’ve been waking to Nature Sound Gallery - one of numerous albums of outdoor sound recordings of the Japanese countryside. It’s a great way to start the day. When camping there’s no need for Nature Sound Gallery—the recordings are right there, all you have to do is pay attention and listen.
Around 9pm on a Saturday night a few weeks ago, under a partly cloudy sky with the mid evening moon peaking through the clouds we were camping on the outskirts of Iida and heard an eery high-pitched call resounding from the forested mountainside. Naively I thought it might have been a deer but that was wildly off the mark. Nevertheless, it sounded magical. We were intrigued and wanted to find out what it was so after a few minutes listening and a quick internet search (we couldn’t resist) we discovered that it was a White’s thrush (トラツグミ・toratsugumi). We stopped talking, looked up at the stars as the thrush called out in the dark of night. That rare (for us city dwellers) transient call captured the essence of why we were out in mountains camping that night.
There’s an example of one here.
When we were back home and awoke the following day Nature Sound Gallery started playing as usual, and there it was - that call. It had been playing every morning for a few years but I’d never noticed.
Two weeks later in Mie, again on a moonlight Saturday evening while camping by the ocean, our daughter wouldn’t fall sleep. So I took her in my arms and walked down to the beach, just the two of us. I held her as she looked up at the moon. The intrigue and amazement was right there in her eyes as she kept looking, both at the moon and at me, back and forth, over and over again. I’m pretty sure that was the first time she’d noticed that bright light in the night sky.
Both occasions would not have happened had we chose to stay home. But we didn’t. We chose to go camping and sleep under the stars. As a result, both nights had moments that I will never forget.
So yes, to answer my own question - a night or two out sleeping under the stars is worth it.
You need to go out and listen to the sounds of the forest and kids need to know there’s more to life than video games.
I’ve added a few new pages to my website that may or may not be of interest.
If I Were Travelling the World
All under the title of IS THIS ZETTELKASTEN? found in the side menu. (Yes, it’s an awful title that I need to change.)
Have anything to say? Feel free to email me.
Posts this month.
Hiking to Ashihama – SeanBreslin.net
Ashihama remains wild and isolated. You can hear the deer, see the eagles soaring above, and see telltale signs of wild boar everywhere. If Chubu Electric had had their way then it would be the sit…
Hiking: Takadoyasan, Nagano – SeanBreslin.net
We didn’t make it all the way to Takadoyasan (高鳥屋山) – I was carrying 11 kilos of daughter on my back and I’d never hiked this trail before. Logic dictated that we take it easy and…
Toyoura Bay, Kihoku – SeanBreslin.net
Kihoku and Minami Ise, on the Kii Peninsula, were regular destinations back in 2013. I had planned to do a photo project on the people and region but the plan fizzled out and got pushed aside. That…
Books Read
The Unmapped Country - Stories and Fragments - Ann Quinn
The Living Mountain - Nan Shepard
日本人の心が分かる日本語 - 森田六郎
Music
I’ve been rediscovering The Beloved from (mostly) the 1990s. They still hold up very well today.